• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Unless Congress acts to extend jobless benefits by tomorrow, 2 million Americans expecting their unemployment checks, will not receive them. Congress reconvenes today after a week-long break. However, negotiations over the benefits may be held hostage by lawmakers wishing to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Coming just before the holidays, the cut in jobless benefits could impact not only the livelihoods of millions, but also impact the fragile consumer-based economy. However, conservative economists are touting the end of jobless benefits as beneficial to the economy in the long run. Writing for Forbes.com yesterday, John Tamny said “working Americans would be far more productive if aware that their joblessness would not be met with a check from the state, and their productivity would attract greater investment on the way to more job security.” Meanwhile, the so-called Deficit Commission will release it’s recommendations this week which are expected to include raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits, cutting Medicare benefits, and privatizing both programs. This morning the Economic Policy Institute, together with Demos, and the Century Foundation released their budget blueprint for economic recovery and fiscal responsibility. In it, they argue that the best way to rebuild the economy is to substantially increase funding for job creation, invest in early childhood education, quality child care, infrastructure, public transit, and more, cut out-of-control health care costs, strengthen social security, cut military spending, repeal Bush-era tax cuts for the rich, and modernize the tax code, among other things. The report also claims that its blueprint will balance the nation’s budget by 2018.

GUEST: Rebecca Thiess, policy analyst at Economic policy Institute.

Find out more at www.epi.org. See the entire report here: http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/investing_in_americas_economy