Rumor has it that Obama will want jobless benefits extended................it's almost 2 years now (99weeks) . If anything it should be lowered. Where's the incentive to even try to find a job if you're going to get paid to stay home for 2 years??
Here's the real issue, More. There are many 99er's out there who are not truly 99ers and many of them are going to find that out the hard way after January.
Look at this link from the state of california unemployment website:
http://www.edd.ca.gov/unemployment/Federal_Unemployment_Insurance_Extensions.htm It details the federal unemployment extension plan currently in place (which is administered by the individual states, although the money for the extension comes from the federal government). The plan is the same in all fifty states, although if a particular state has a low enough unemployment rate, some of the extension does not apply to the unemployed in that state.
I chose the california site because the table format allows one to see the details easily. The unemployment extension is like a multi staged rocket. To initiate a new stage, a new claim needs to be filed. Do you notice the most of the deadlines for opening new claims are a certain date?? Yes, January 1, 2012 for most of them and dec 25,2011 for one of them . For simplicity, I will just focus on Jan 1. Once that date happens, whatever stage a unemployed person finds himself in, that is the last one he is going to finish. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 bucks, etc. .
I happen to know of one guy who is going to find himself in the second to last stage of 6 weeks at that date. He will just miss getting the extra 20 weeks by a week because of the deadline.
If there is no extension, there are going to be a lot of people without an income . Many of those people can be voters and they will vote their anger , probably against the most visible of targets , Mr Obama. Mr. Obama's task is to either procure the extension (and he will need republican help just like he did the last time he fought for a continuation of the unemployment extension program ) in order to prevent this anger or to try to push the wrath of these voters onto the Republican party in the event that he can't get the extension.
I ain't chosing sides in this debate, just spelling out the game, the way it is being played and what the stakes are.