“Now that I need help it’s nowhere to be found…”
My constituent, Cassie Jones,* sits in her apartment, which she has rented since 1986, wondering how she will pay the rent next month. Since she lost her job of 18 years, she has been surviving on unemployment benefits and her savings account. Over 150 job applications later, her benefits are exhausted and her savings account is nearly dry. She needs help.**
Failing to extend unemployment benefits is nonsensical and callous. Yet, in the past three months, House Republicans have failed to consider an unemployment insurance extension eight times. Political affiliation should have no weight in determining whether to place food on the table of your constituents and lift them out of poverty.
Since it expired late last year, over 40,000 Wisconsinites have lost unemployment insurance, affecting over 20,000 children. Yet the impact doesn’t end there. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that there will be 200,000 fewer jobs in 2014 if Congress fails to extend unemployment insurance. Moreover, the Democratic Ways and Means Committee projects that failing to extend this benefit has drained over $75 million from our Wisconsin economy from January through March. Americans are hurting. The last thing they need or deserve is their government inflicting more wounds.
For more go here:Â https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-gwen-moore/extending-the-unemploymen_b_5107775.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%20Voices.
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