The Senate voted Tuesday to pass a $10 billion measure to extend benefits for unemployed workers and fund road projects after Sen. Jim Bunning agreed to end his filibuster.

“We cannot keep adding to the debt and passing the buck to generations of future workers and taxpayers, my children and your children and our grandchildren,” Bunning said on the Senate floor after the agreement to end his filibuster was reached. “Tonight, tomorrow and on every spending bill in the future, we will see if they (Democrats) mean business on controlling the debt or if it’s just words. We will see if pay-go has any teeth or not.”

Source – CNN

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Depending on extended unemployment benefits to see you through the Great Recession?

You’d better not: The Senate failed to push back the Feb. 28 deadline to apply for this safety net.

“Right now, the 1.2 million workers who will lose benefits in March are being held hostage by partisan attempts to delay and block this critical legislation,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.

Starting Monday, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy.

Federal unemployment benefits kick in after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. During the downturn, Congress has approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds.

These federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.

Because the Senate did not act, the jobless will now stop getting checks once they run out of their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits.

Full report – CNN

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Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job.

That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago.

Only 10% of voters say Congress is doing a good or excellent job.

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Two months into the new year, Congress is at a standstill, stuck in party-line votes, heated debates and electoral politics.

And there’s no indication that will change before mid-term elections in November, political observers say: Democrats are afraid to take chances on anything that might alienate voters, and Republicans can stand pat and hope the anti-incumbent mood brewing in the country will help weaken Democrats’ control of Congress.

“The problem is the combination of highly ideologically polarizing political parties operating at sort of near parity,” said Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.

CNN

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The CARD Act, which was signed into law last May, will finally go into effect Monday, meaning big changes for the millions of card-carrying Americans across the country.

Among other things, it will eliminate some of the more egregious practices of the past like so-called “double-cycle billing”, arbitrary rate increases and hefty fees for exceeding your credit limit.

But while the new law also promises consumers more transparency about their credit card bill, cardholders still need to watch out for a whole new series of traps and tricks.

CNN

Congress stipulated a nine-month phase-in period for these regulations. For millions of Americans, especially those suffering from employment and income interruptions, this is too late. If you’re in debt today, this bill doesn’t help you. Companies already have jacked up interest rates, sharply reduced lines of credit, increased service fees and diluted the value of loyalty reward programs. These trends have brought consumer credit scores down, triggering higher borrowing costs and greater difficulty finding work.

One MAJOR issue here is the fact that the law was passed in May of last year. This gave more than enough time for banks to go through all their cardholders accounts and raise their APR rates and lower their credit limits for minor reasons.

I have been following this since last year. It’s amazing how many folks that with good to excellent credit with any remaining balance that had their APR hijacked 10 to 20 percent. Those with issues have been driven further into debt with no help from anyone.

In my opinion this bill is useless. The only thing that congress provided is another reason for banks to panic and raise rates on the middle class..and drive many consumers further into debt.

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