© Heidi Schumann/The New York Time
At least 100,000 of those workers, those who have been unemployed the longest, could see a cutoff of benefits as early as the first week of January.
The state has more than 2 million unemployed workers, and 1.1 million of them are now collecting benefits -- either the 26 weeks of state-financed payments, or the up to 73 weeks of federally financed extended benefits in five tiers, in order, of 20, 14, 13, six and 20 weeks. Benefits range from $40 to $450 a week.
In all, California is paying out about $1.2 billion in state and federal unemployment insurance benefits a month.
The state's Unemployment Insurance Fund, which is supported by payroll taxes paid by employers and pays those first 26 weeks of benefits, went into the red a couple of years ago and has been largely supported ever since by federal loans -- now nearly $10 billion.
The federal extensions are now tied up in a partisan political wrangle involving a Republican-controlled House, a Democratic-controlled Senate and the Obama White House. Without action, they will expire at the end of the year.
Dan Stephens, a spokesman for the Department of Employment Development, said that if the political deadlock continues, those receiving the initial 26-week segment of benefits would continue to receive payments until the time expired, but could not apply for extensions. Those receiving the first four tiers of federal extensions would receive benefits until their tier periods expired, but not be able to move up to another tier.
Those on the last, 20-week tier -- about 100,000 jobless workers -- would have their benefits cut off almost immediately, Stephens said, without congressional action.
They would join the 584,637 unemployed Californians who already have exhausted all tiers of benefits.
This problem is not the result of "political deadlock."
This problem is the result of political criminality.
Someone needs to figure out how to start appropriating the bank accounts of the worst crooks so that stolen wealth can be put to productive uses.
The unemployed will also have to change their paradigms. We need to begin to create communities that can take care of each other. I have met homeless people and I know they have a start on this. But they are still very dependent on government handouts. If those handouts end, what will they do? Their only hope is to organize. It is a model that we dropped when we urbanized that we need to pick up again. There are good people out there who have wealth and would be able to share some of it if they were approached in an organized manner. Communities are also going to have to become more willing to side with citizens against corporate interests. This will involve a new approach to law and human rights, and to the threat of death.
If things continue as they have been, I may get a chance to test my ideas in the real world!