Benefits for the long-term unemployed—a projected 1.3 million Americans—are set to expire on Saturday, a move that Democrats have painted as heartless and Republicans call timely while the nation’s unemployment rate is at a low seven percent. The Senate is set to vote on a bill reinstating benefits retroactively in the first full week back from a bipartisan group of senators calling to extend the emergency benefits for three more months, at an estimated cost of $6.5 billion. 1.9 million more Americans are set to lose an average of $300 a week in benefits by mid-year when their 26 weeks of state sponsored aid runs out.
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