Leading Republicans' states among worst hit by jobless benefits cuts

[n2doc]

Paul Lewis in Washington and Kenan Davis in New York

Senior Republican senators including Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul represent some of the states most affected by the controversial cancellation of long-term unemployment benefits, according to a Guardian analysis of data released this week.

Democrats, with strong backing from the White House, are orchestrating a major push to restore the benefits, which mostly apply to people who have been searching for work for more than six months.

Around 1.3 million people lost unemployment insurance benefits last week, after a bipartisan budget deal on federal spending failed to include a reauthorisation of the program. A further 72,000 job-seekers are expected lose their benefits from Saturday, a rolling tally that will continue through the year.

Figures released this week by the Department of Labor, and analysed by House Democrats, provided the first state-by-state breakdown of the first tranche of American job-seekers whose benefits were cut off. The knock-on impact has been estimated to be costing the US economy up to a billion dollars a week.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/04/republicans-unemployment-benefits-cuts-bill-voters

[JNelson6563]

1. I hope they are getting an earful.