US citizens who are out of work have collected $434 billion in unemployment benefits according to government data reviewed by CNN Money. Taxpayer have paid $185 billion of this that Labor Department reports
CNN Money writes
The cost of continuing this safety net will be the subject of intense debate in Congress in coming weeks as lawmakers decide whether to extend the deadline to file for federal benefits beyond year’s end. Keeping this lifeline in place through 2012 would cost $44 billion.
These numbers are at the heart of a pitched debate in the Congress and between Congress and The White House. As many as 1.7 million Americans could loss all benefits at the end of this year, if they are not extended. It has impossible to say what the direct effect of this would be on the economy. It would, however, take almost all of these people out of the consumer sector, which could be a drag on GDP
The extension of the benefits is part of the brutal debate over how an austerity budget can be implemented in the US without wounding jobs growth
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