The GOP Embraces Its Inner Grinch

Congress is just days away from letting supplemental unemployment benefits expire for 1.3 million Americans? And that's just for starters. According to the White House Council on Economic Advisers, an additional 3.6 million people will lose their benefits by the end of 2014.

The National Employment Law Project notes that "while the average American family spends $1,407 per month on housing alone, the average monthly extension benefit is only $1,166." Still the modest sums help: According to the Council of Economic Advisers, in 2012 alone unemployment insurance benefits "lifted an estimated 2.5 million people out of poverty." Further, the National Employment Law Project estimates, 446,000 of those people were children.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articl...rance-benefits