US Congress, White House to allow jobless benefits to expire for 1.3 million
Andre Damon: US Congress, White House to allow jobless benefits to expire for 1.3 million ■ In a display of cruelty and callousness, Congressional Democrats have made clear that they intend to allow federal extended jobless benefits for over a million long-term unemployed to expire at the end of the year. The elimination of unemployment benefits, which average about $300 a week, even as the Federal Reserve continues to hand tens of billions of dollars to the banks every month, and as corporate profits and the stock markets are soaring, is a clear example of the class interests defended by the entire state apparatus. Whatever the declamations of “partisan gridlock,” the Democrats and Republicans are united on the basic interests of the corporate and financial elite. The social consequences will be devastating.