Millions to Lose Unemployment Benefits if Congress Doesn't Act

How many times are we going to have to sit through this movie? As reported today by CNN, Congress is once again wrangling over whether to extend long term unemployment benefits:

Millions of unemployed Americans are waiting for Congress to do something other than trade barbs over their job creation plans.

If lawmakers don't act soon, the jobless see their unemployment checks start to disappear come January.

More than 6 million Americans are set to lose federal unemployment benefits in 2012, with 1.8 million running out in January alone, according to new figures from the National Employment Law Project.

President Obama's $447 billion American Jobs Act would extend the deadline to file for federal unemployment benefits for another year. Though the Senate is expected to take up the controversial jobs bill on Tuesday, it's unlikely to get very far.

While many Washington observers say the administration's jobs bill is dead in the water, it's possible the unemployment extension could be separated and sent through on its own, or as part of another bill before year's end. The extension is estimated to cost $44 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

As I've written before on this blog, total U.S. employment remains about seven million jobs below the level of December 2007 when the Great Recession began, and the problem is compounded by the fact that the population has grown by several million people since that time. Quite simply, there are not enough jobs, even crappy, minimum wage-paying jobs, to go around. And yet, there was this gem of a quote in the story:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor last month identified unemployment insurance reforms as an area of potential common agreement.

"Unemployment benefits should not turn into a permanent solution," he said last month. "We should somehow connect the unemployed and unemployment benefits with work and job opportunity."

You bet, Eric. Just like we should somehow, magically be able to replace the energy from our dwindling petroleum reserves by burning the endless supply of Skittles pooped out by an enourmous herd of rainbow colored unicorns.