Extending the Pain: Value of new jobless benefits still being debated

FOR MANY Americans returning to work today - that is, those fortunate enough to still have work - our annual round of Independence Day self-congratulations may ring a bit hollow.

Americans are in deep trouble and Congress appears unwilling, or unable, to do much about it.

The only thing worse than being out of a job is being out of a job with your unemployment benefits expiring. For 1.3 million of the 7 million Americans who have been unemployed for six months or more, that day came in the past month.

The reason: In early June, Congress failed to pass an extension of unemployment benefits and last Wednesday, a third Republican filibuster in as many weeks blocked a majority in the U.S. Senate from reinstating them.

If the Senate can't scrounge up another vote to reach the 60 it needs to break a filibuster, millions more will lose their benefits by the end of the month, with serious consequences not only for them but for the rest of us. Even though an average $309 a week in benefits is not a lot, family purchases help keep up the demand for goods and services that allows other Americans to hang on to their jobs.

As the Pew Research Center reported last week, six in 10 Americans already have cut down on spending or borrowing, and for good reason. More than half (55 percent) of the country's working adults took a hit in the 30-month Great Recession, suffering job losses, pay cuts, reduced hours or unpaid furloughs. Reducing millions of unemployed Americans to no income at all will only make them more afraid to spend. It's this lack of demand that has keeps businesses from hiring. Vicious circle, anyone?

The filibuster came a day before the monthly jobs report showed an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent - 0.3 percent lower than last month, but only because about 652,000 people stopped looking for work altogether.

Some Republican leaders in Congress claim that they are all for extending unemployment benefits but don't want to add the $33 billion cost to the deficit. They want it to come out of money left over from last year's stimulus.

It would be easier to buy this line if these politicians had exhibited any concern at all for the 13-figure debt created by the Bush-era tax cuts, let alone the trillion-dollar overdraft used to pay for the war in Iraq. Besides, the stimulus money is supposed to. well, stimulate job creation, and there's a heckuva lot more of that to do.

Congress has never ended unemployment insurance extensions when unemployment was so high. In fact, several times over the last half-century, benefits were kept going until unemployment had gone below 6 percent.

But there's also an undercurrent of suspicion - sometimes expressed publicly - that unemployment benefits make people lazy. Some members of Congress have implied that some people, presumably including their own constituents, need to watch their kids go hungry before they will get off the couch and look for work.

The reality: Ordinary American workers face a much more competitive job market than most members of Congress do. While most elections have only two contenders for a job, there are five unemployed workers to every job available in today's America.

The U.S. economy will remain a shadow of its former self unless there is a bold effort to create jobs. Pushing the unemployed into destitution certainly won't help.

Somebody needs to explain to these folks that, when you're in an economic hole, one thing you can do to improve the situation is to stop digging.