"Unemployment Extension: Senate Democrats Introduce Yearlong Reauthorization Of Extended Jobless Aid"

Arthur Delaney (HuffPo):

Without a reauthorization, the Labor Department estimates that 2 million Americans will lose their benefits over the course of December, with 800,000 facing a cutoff this week alone.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday that Democrats may try to use unemployment benefits as part of a bargain reauthorizing soon-to-expire tax cuts for the rich.

The progressive Economic Policy Institute estimates that reauthorizing the benefits through 2011 would cost $65 billion. That's about 1.7 percent of the White House's projected 2011 budget. MORE...