Published: December 2, 2010
OzarksFirst.com

See video

Unemployed March in Washington for Extended Benefits

By Nancy Cordes - CBS News

Unemployed workers from Philadelphia and New York boarded buses bound for Washington urging Congress to reinstate their lapsed unemployment benefits.  "We are jobless through no fault of our own!" one said.

Benefits  that expired for more than 800,000 jobless Americans last night, and will run out for more than a million more if Congress doesn't act by the end of the year.

James Dias, 57, of Queens, is an out of work bricklayer.
A reporter asked him about his situation:  "How long have you been on unemployment benefits? (Dial) Six months. (Q) Have you been looking for work? (Dial) Yes, but there's no work."

Congress has extended unemployment insurance benefits eight times since the economy tanked in 2008. Seven times without paying for it.

"I'm not an economist and I'm not bright enough to figure it out, but just kind of being raised by
an old country boy, It seems like we keep putting band aids on a body that has a cut artery," says Anthony Roebuck, an unemployed sheet metal worker.

Republicans are demanding the benefits be offset by other cuts, Democrats say it's an emergency.

"I find it difficult to understand how some of my colleagues on the other side would object to an extension of unemployment
benefits for a year that are not offset, but at the same time insist that we provide tax cuts for the very richest Americans without paying for them, said Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI).

Contributing to the pressure cooker, Republicans issued an ultimatum  in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, refusing to "proceed to any legislative item until the Senate has acted to fund the government" and "prevented the tax increase."

House Democrats have called a vote on the Bush tax cuts for the middle class for tomorrow. But that actually infuriated Republicans who want the tax cuts extended for everyone.