70,000 more Americans cut off from unemployment insurance
by Thom Hartmann,posted May 30 2012 10:55AM
The National Employment Law Project is reporting that another 70,000 Americans will be cut off from unemployment insurance next month. Already – nearly half a million Americans have lost their unemployment benefits this year thanks to austerity measures demanded by Republicans in Congress – and rubber-stamped by Democrats and President Obama – that cut unemployment insurance down from 99 weeks to 79 weeks in states that haven’t seen their unemployment situations get worse. That even includes states like Florida, Nevada, and Illinois that all have unemployment rates above the national average.
So what does this mean? Aside from the moral crisis of pushing families into desperation – it’s also bad for the economy as money is being taken out of the hands of Americans who would normally spend it and stimulate the economy. Republicans have been pushing policies that will crash the economy – just so they have a better chance at beating President Obama in November. And unfortunately Democrats are letting them get away with it.
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