Unemployment Benefits Extension: Encouraging Unemployed to Be Slackers?

The debate over whether an unemployment benefits extension discourages people from looking for work is causing a Senate bill to languish that would extend benefits to people who have been out of work the longest.

Many people think 99 weeks -- the current maximum to collect benefits -- is enough time to find a job and another unemployment benefits extension is a disincentive to finding work. Others say that in this recession -- the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s -- it's so difficult to find a job that benefits should be extended to keep people on their feet.