If you're unemployed and still don't have a job three days after Christmas, youcan forget extra unemployment benefits. You've had it. That's the message from this Ebenezer Scrooge of a Congress.
Who says the recession is over? The official rate of unemployment is still stuck up there at 6 percent, which means almost 8 million people actively looking for jobs and about a million more who've given up trying find one.
And if you think a lot of jobs are coming back soon you're living on another planet. As recessions go, this is a long one. Remember, it all started in the middle of the year 2000 when businesses stopped buying capital equipment, the dot-com bubble burst, and the technology bubble exploded. And then came the terrorist attacks. And then the Wall-Street scandals. Japan is still flat on its back. Europe is slowing down.
This is a longer recession than the last one. And it's taking people who lose their jobs longer to find new ones.
So here's the odd thing: In the last recession, the federal government program providing extra unemployment benefits kept going for two and a half years, until the economy fully recovered. This time, the program went just 10 months, ending long before the economy showed signs of recovery.
Look, even uncompassionate conservatives ought to know that unemployment insurance is good for the economy. It gives money to people who are going to spend it, and this helps get the economy moving.
So in the future let's not leave it up to the whim of Congress. Whenever the official rate of unemployment hits 5 and a half percent and there's been no jobgrowth for three months, extra unemployment benefits automatically kick in. When the economy is doing better, the extra benefits stop.
Easy, predictable, counter-cyclical, and fair. But don't hold your breath, especially if you don't have a job.
