While Washington plays its fiscal games, people all over the country are receiving robo-calls warning them that their extended unemployment benefits will come to an end December 31 unless Congress acts. What must it feel like to get such calls, at this season of the year, with work still so very hard to find?
Wouldn't it be better to put an end to this whole exercise, extend all the various measures known as the "fiscal cliff" by another, say, 90 days? What could be crazier than rewriting the US tax code and the American social insurance system in the political equivalent of a college all-nighter?
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