Extension of jobless Benefits

It is obvious that America has faced one of the worst financial crises. In response, to the horrible economic climate the senate has voted to extend unemployment benefits by seven weeks in every state. The bill calls for benefits to be extended by 13 weeks in states with an unemployment rate of at least 6 percent. President Bush announced that he will sign the bill, which was approved by the House in October. In September, Bush had threatened to veto a broader stimulus bill that included the extension of jobless benefits. In most states, unemployment benefits are paid for a maximum of 26 weeks. Ironically, the Senate vote came on the same day the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of people filing for unemployment insurance had reached a 16-year high. U.S. job losses have been increasing. This month, the Department of Labor reported that the economy lost 240,000 jobs in October, bringing the total number of jobs shed in 2008 to nearly 1.2 million. The unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent, a 14-year high, last month. Companies reporting layoffs in past week include Citigroup, which slashed 20 percent of its work force, or 50,000 jobs, the biggest cut by a corporation in 15 years. Financial services firm Fidelity Investments announced that it will cut 1,700 jobs and Sun Microsystems reported that it would lay off 6,000 people, or 18 percent of its work force. (To see actual article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/20/senate.jobless/index.html)
This problem is so terrible; the problem is not solved so until it is many people will continue to lose their jobs. The economy determines whether or not many families can afford to live or simply just get by in this chaos. This is the least the government could do by not fixing this problem when it wasn’t so bad. But wait until many people are unemployed to actually do something profitable. It won’t make a difference because the problem is maintaining a job where increasing the duration of benefits may not be enough for many families or anyone for that matter.