3 Million Jobless: Why Hasn't Congress Extended Unemployment Benefits?

This week, Congress considers another unemployment insurance extension bill, which faces many political hurdles despite the nearly 3 million Americans who have lost their unemployment benefits since December.

Emergency Unemployment Insurance (UI) ensures that long-term jobless Americans are provided some assistance for basic human needs. In December 2013, Congress let unemployment benefits lapse.

Since then, 72,000 have lost their unemployment compensation each week, leaving them without help to pay the bills and provide for their families.

Are unemployment benefits too expensive?

Many lawmakers claim that we shouldn’t pay for an extension of UI without offsetting it with cuts somewhere else. Gridlock in Congress over the cost of these benefits has led to inaction on their renewal.

But the truth is Congress passes bills all the time that are not paid for. But when it comes to unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed – some lawmakers think we just can’t spare the change.

We've got a simple solution: A three-month extension of UI would cost $6.5 billion. Three months of just one single corporate tax break -- the one that allows corporations to defer paying taxes on income earned overseas -- costs the federal government around $10.4 billion. So all lawmakers need to do is close a tax break and they'd have all the funds they need to offset the cost of unemployment benefits for millions of Americans.

Related:

One corporation could fund a whole month of unemployment insurance if it would pay its fair share of taxes 

Congress gives corporations a break but not the unemployed

How Congress has failed jobless Americans despite weak job growth

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GE vs unemployment benefits