What happens when unemployment benefits end?

An open letter to Congress:

I am writing to you yet again about unemployment. Every week that passes, hundreds of thousands of people finish their 99 weeks of unemployment. This not only affects those workers that can't find a job ... but it also weighs down the economy. How can businesses hire new employees when people can't afford to buy their products? You people are wasting time putting Band Aids on the broken limbs of the country.

I realize the U.S. wants to help other countries. But shouldn't we worry about our own people first? It doesn't look like our government is doing that. They are too busy arguing among themselves and trying to make the other person (or party, if you wish) look bad. The economy is getting better an inch at a time ... but now that benefits are ending for tens of thousands of unemployed workers on a weekly basis, we will be back to where we started.

Our country was built on consumerism, but if people don't have the money to buy anything, our country will just sink deeper and deeper into a hole. This is so out of hand that people feel the government doesn't care. Please do something soon. I'm glad you have a job (wish we did). Please do the right thing, add a tier 5 unemployment extension.

Please help me and my other 99ers let our voice be heard. Just because we are not the majority shouldn't mean that we should be forgotten.

Thank you for listening.

James Faborito

Woodstock