President Obama Signs Bill For Extension Of Unemployment Benefits

Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 12:43 pm

This morning, the news pertaining to the jobless rate was higher than expected, and this underscored the need for the extended unemployment insurance benefits, which Obama signed later on in the day.

This site has written on this topic before, but we have to continue to do so because of the importance in light of the economic doldrums that we are going through.

For weeks, the Republicans and the Democrats have been fighting about the extension, positing their respective positions. But in the end, the Democrats mustered enough votes to allow the extension.

President Obama, on his part, used his “bully pulpit” to garner the needed support and votes… resulting in his singing of the unemployment extension.

The Washington Post is reporting that the President signed a six month extension, which restored benefits that were cut off since June for some 3 Million folks. These people have been out of work and are depending on these benefits. The extension will cost some $34 billion and the bill passed by a count of 272 to 152. The Republicans wanted the extension, but wanted the cost not to be borne by our treasury – the Democrats basically said not to worry about the deficit because there were people hurting here and now.

The truth is this is a temporary measure and we cannot keep going back to the well before the water is finished. President Obama must find a way to produce jobs – no blaming of President George Bush, even if warranted, will longer suffice. The broken vessel is now yours, Mr. President and you must put the pieces back together.