Michele Bachmann is the latest member of Congress to demonstrate that she does not completely understand unemployment legislation.
In a statement to MinnPost on Tuesday, the Minnesota Republican criticized the deal President Obama crafted with Republican leaders to preserve rich people's tax cuts for two years and extend unemployment benefits for 13 months.
"As part of the compromise, the President wants to extend unemployment benefits for another 13 months," Bachmann said. "Unemployment benefits are already at a historical length of 99 weeks, and the President's request would push benefits to three years."
Problem is, the president's request would do no such thing. It would preserve the 99 weeks by reauthorizing Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits programs, which together provide up to 73 weeks of benefits beyond the standard 26 funded by states.
Proposals to give the long-term unemployed in hardest-hit states an additional 20 weeks of benefits do exist, but those plans are going nowhere.
Bachmann is one of the loudest conservative critics of Obama's deal with congressional Republicans, which has also been panned by progressives.
(The version of the statement on Bachmann's website is better. It says, "Unemployment benefits are already at a historical length of 99 weeks, and the President's request will cost another $56 billion.")
rest at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/michele-bachmann-misunderstands-unemployment-bill_n_793437.html?fbwall
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