[Tolsti2]

These benefits are a drop in the bucket compared to the stimulus and so on. I highly doubt it’s causing any worse ‘hardship’ on business or tax payers than the far, far larger spending that goes on all the time.

This isn’t a matter of ‘go get a job’ if the market dries up. Trust me, I was panicked when the benefits were running out cause I saw it coming and tried absolutely everything I could, and it was all for nothing.

If they cut off UI benefits you’d see no hiring increases. You’d have a drastic amount of people falling into apermanent lower class (millions and millions). This is not what anyone wants or needs and will make things farrrr worse.

[GonzoGOP]

In California, the state closest to complete economic collapse, the going rate is $450 per week, New York is a $405. Lets go with the lower number for sake of argument. According to Obama's National Bureau of Labor Statistics the number of unemployed persons, at 14.6 million, and the unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, were unchanged in July. That works out to 5.8 billion a week or 303.6 billion to extend every ones benefits an extra year. For comparison that is a little less than half the US military budget for 2009 or 17 times what we will spend on NASA in 2010. Not stimulus spending by any means but not a drop in the bucket either. Also that is just the cost of payouts. Administrative costs (and when dealing with a Federal bureaucracy I don't imagine those are small) have to get dumped on top of that.