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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is demanding that government spending cuts be made to pay for an extension to the federal unemployment insurance program, which expires on Dec. 31, 2012, reports the Associated Press.

Without the extension, about two million people will lose their unemployment insurance. On top of that, another million will see their benefits run out after January 2013.

However, Sen. McConnell has not required the Bush tax cuts, which benefit the very wealthy, to be offset by any government spending cuts.

In Sen. McConnell's home state of Kentucky, as many as 24,000 people will lose their benefits this week.

Kentucky's unemployment rate remains high at 8.2 percent.

The Associated Press reports:

McConnell's office says it's too early to make such an assessment because Obama's plan is unclear on whether extended benefits for the unemployed would be paid for with cuts in other programs or on how it would deal with an expiring estate tax, among other issues.