Also missing from the bill was any extension of health insurance benefits for the unemployed.
There is already a laundry list of exceptions including higher education expenses, health insurance premiums for the unemployed, and first-time home purchases.
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More than half of this would merely be to extend for an additional year two measures that expire in December: a 2% payroll tax cut and up to 99 weeks of insurance benefits for the unemployed.
Secondly, there was a discussion about passing an extension of unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed.
The plan also extends unemployment insurance for another year. (Applause.) If the millions of unemployed Americans stopped getting this insurance, and stopped using that money for basic necessities, it would be a devastating blow to this economy.
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And now it deserves the same kind of up or down vote that was cast on welfare reform, that was cast on the Children's Health Insurance Program, that was used for COBRA health coverage for the unemployed, and, by the way, for both Bush tax cuts --- all of which had to pass Congress with nothing more than a simple majority.
He would let the unemployed continue to collect benefits for up to 99 weeks, and wisely funnel some unemployment-insurance money into retraining and subsidies for hiring the long-term unemployed.
Extending unemployment insurance to 99 weeks reduces the incentive to search diligently for a job, enabling unemployed workers to be choosy.
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It outlined a social agenda that called for, among others, insurance coverage and subsidies to aid the poor and unemployed during times of economic flux.
If the millions of unemployed Americans stopped getting this insurance, and stopped using that money for basic necessities, it would be a devastating blow to this economy.
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Most state unemployment insurance programs cover the first 26 weeks, or six months, of unemployment, normally enough time for the vast majority of unemployed to find new work.
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