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Opinion: The conversation: Benefiting the unemployed

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President Obama would like to extend unemployment benefits, but Republicans are ready to block his every move. How, then, do we help people who’re laid off; how do we grow jobs?

‘The only way to fix the deficit,’ says William Drayton, ‘is to multiply jobs.’

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There are other ways to build jobs, argues an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. ‘For every job outsourced to Bangalore, nearly two jobs are created in Buffalo or other American cities.’

‘I survived unemployment, thanks to benefits,’ writes entrepreneur David Walker. Without it, he says he never would have been able to pick himself back up and start his own business.

‘Unemployment benefits should not be held hostage to extend tax cuts to the wealthy,’ says civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Our editorial board believes, ‘Cutting off extended benefits for the unemployed not only hurts individuals who’ve been laid off but could dampen the economic recovery.’

Will Obama’s propensity for compromise doom unemployment benefits even more? In a post on her blog, Rachel Maddow urges the president to do the right thing, not the ‘Right’ thing.

-- Alexandra Le Tellier

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