White House Backs 3-Month Extension of Long-Term Jobless Benefits - Washington Wire - WSJ

White House Backs 3-Month Extension of Long-Term Jobless Benefits - Washington Wire - WSJ

The White House is backing a bipartisan proposal in the Senate to temporarily extend emergency unemployment benefits, with plans to mount a public campaign in coming weeks to gain support for the measure.
White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett said Wednesday that President Barack Obama would sign legislation proposed by Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) and Sen. Dean Heller (R., Nev.) that would extend for three months the benefits for the long-term unemployed that expire at the end of the year.
“We strongly support it and we think it will be bipartisan,” Ms. Jarrett said in an interview with Politico, predicting it will pass the House and Senate. “We’re hopeful that over the course of the next few weeks we’ll galvanize support for it,” Ms. Jarrett added.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has said he plans to make extending unemployment benefits the first order of business next year. As it stands, more than 1.3 million long-term unemployed people will lose jobless benefits at the end of the year.
Messrs. Reed and Heller have proposed a bill designed to give Congress three months to come up with a long-term plan for unemployment benefits. One sticking point: The proposal doesn’t identify how lawmakers would pay for the extension; in the past, lawmakers have agreed to extend the program without specific revenues or savings to pay for it.

In a nut shell, on one side there exists a possible massive asset bubble and inflation; and on the other side there lies a deflationary depression. It is now crunch time for the Fed to choose which way we fall. My call is no taper till March if any at all, One just has to look at Commodities as a whole to realize the economy basically sucks..Case and point The White House is backing a bipartisan proposal in the Senate to temporarily extend emergency unemployment benefits. Any how I'm long and will remain long until May at best as I'm sitting in Jun 178 SPY calls...Opinions may vary of course. GL to all on the FED news release.