As I think you’ve figured out by now, these cuts aren’t economically sound. They’re just punitive:
[…] unemployment benefits to jobless workers for longer than the normal maximum of 26 weeks have been extended repeatedly, although the maximum duration of benefits has fallen from a peak of 99 weeks to 73 weeks. The Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, financed by the federal government for states that meet certain unemployment and state benefit thresholds, is scheduled to end Jan. 1.
The recent fiscal showdown in Washington make further extensions less likely. And the end of these emergency unemployment benefits could create a further drag on the economy.
The so-called food stamp cliff “may be more of a sidewalk curb,” Mr. Feroli wrote in an email. “The bigger cliff, which I’m surprised people aren’t talking about, is emergency unemployment benefits Jan. 1.” That, he estimated, could shave 0.4 percentage point off growth in the first quarter next year.
If we are not spending this money on unemployment benifits we need to know where our Congress is spending it? We do know that the PM of Iraq, al Maliki, wants billions of U.S. dollars, billions in U.S weapons and thousands of U.S. troops to fight the civil war (his Shiite government vs. the al Qaeda Sunni’s) in his country. So that’s where some of this money is going. We also know that billions more is going to Israel for weapons so that they can bomb Syria. Which they did for at least the sixth time yesterday. Obama has tried to remain neutral in this civil and regional sectarian war, but the neo-con Zionists are making it very hard for him to do that. Because they want a military strike against Iran. There is always plenty of money to make war, but there is never enough money to help the unemployed or the hungry or the poor.