Unemployment Insurance Again Under Threat
It’s gotten swallowed up in news coverage by the ups and downs of the Republican presidential primary race, but we’re still in a pretty dire jobs situation.
In December, Congress did the right thing and extended unemployment insurance coverage for thousands and thousands of long-term unemployed. With about for job-seekers for every job opening, that’s just common sense. But the extension was only approved for two months, through the end of February.
Well, February is here, without a new extension—meaning that as of March 1, the lifeline for thousands of jobless families will be cut off.
Will Congress act once again to protect their many unemployed constituents? If so, they need to act fast—they only have a month, and they haven’t exactly distinguished themselves so far in appreciating urgency.
What’s worse, the House Republican majority has been clear about its preferred course of action: slashing benefits and imposing conditions to prevent unemployed people from getting the benefits from a system they paid into.
Tens of thousands of people have signed on to the Nine Demands of the 99 Percent, and extending unemployment insurance is one of those key demands. Families between jobs depend on unemployment benefits to feed their kids, stay in their homes and support businesses in their communities.
Congress didn’t pass the last extension out of the goodness of their hearts. They did it because of sustained public pressure. With one (short!) month to go, it’s time to get active again.
Cartoon via UnemployedWorkers.org.
Tags: Jobs, unemployment
Not to nit-pick, but nit-picking anyway: employers pay the whole premium for Unemployment Insurance. That is why they always try to get employees to quit rather than be fired or laid off; their UI rate is based in the number of claims filed against them, If they quit, any reward they may eventually receive is not charged against that employer.
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