Extending unemployment benefit isn't coddling

Bad news this week for jobless Iowans who watched their emergency unemployment benefits dry up while Congress simply watched.

Federal lawmakers chose not to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which expired on Tuesday. That means about 2,000 Iowans will be losing unemployment benefits each week over the next few months. You thought it was cold outside - that's nothing, compared to the temperature inside some lawmakers' chest cavities.

And even if tomorrow is the first night of Hanukkah, I doubt those few remaining checks will be enough to help jobless Iowans through the rough times ahead.

But though Christmas is right around the corner, I won't go making Scrooge analogies. Even if I'm sorely tempted.

Some lawmakers apparently honestly objected to extending the program - which has kept thousands of laid-off Iowa workers afloat after their state benefits were exhausted - because they oppose more deficit spending.

That despite a letter from 33 prominent economists this week, encouraging them to extend the benefit another year not only because it would help out the country's jobless, but the whole economy.

Nobody wants to extend unemployment benefits forever, but not extending them another 12 months is a mistake.

Experts expect a slow recovery through the first half of 2011. That means a rough winter ahead for a lot of out-of-work Iowans.

Even when the jobs do come back, most people who have lost work in this economic downturn will need to pick up a whole new set of skills.

Most currently out-of-work Iowans used to work in manufacturing or construction - jobs that just aren't there anymore.

You can talk about tough love, but with a 5:1 ratio of job seekers to jobs, employment is not a matter of getting your butt off the couch.

“You'll have people who are going to have to look at other opportunities,” as Iowa Workforce Development spokeswoman Kerry Koonce diplomatically put it to me on Tuesday.

Iowa Workforce Development is ready to help, even offering extended unemployment benefits for people willing to retrain for a high-demand career - or at least one predicted to be in high demand when we bounce back. That takes time.

Speaking of time - “no” voting legislators still have a little time left in this lame duck session to change their minds about extending those emergency benefits.

Doing so would be more than compassionate. It would be smart.

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