Unemployment = Early Retirement

We get nasty anonymous Soundoffs at seattlepi.com, saying folks are out of work because they lack initiative or relish life on the dole. Wrong! The truth is there are five jobless people for every job opening, and federal unemployment benefits average a whopping $290 a week.

"These programs aren't extravagant, but for so many workers they have made all the difference," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a Senate speech urging action before the cutoff deadline.

"Workers like Judy Curtis, a woman from Mill Creek, Wash., who wrote to my office urging me to do everything I could to reauthorize this program," Murray continued. "Judy is a single mother who has worked hard her whole life to support herself and her developmentally disabled son.

"She told me she has been laid off twice since the downturn began and has been looking for a new job every day -- but without luck."