Because Long-Term Unemployment

is so high, there needs to be a job creation program by the feds. Tax cuts aren't going to do it.

Coburn's playing stupid games with the unemployed. What's laughable is his fake "concern" for the deficit when the Republicans were responsible for it in the first place.

A piece about the long-term unemployed, such as yours truly:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the federal unemployment rate each month, has tracked and publicized the fact that unemployment over 27 weeks has long been in record territory during this recession, but the Pew analysis is the first study to show just how many Americans have been jobless for more than 52 weeks as of December 2009.

"The number of Americans who have been out of work for a year or longer is roughly equal to the population of Connecticut," Schroeder said in a statement.

The Pew report says people 55 or older account for a relatively small number of the overall unemployed population. But once these older workers become unemployed, nearly 30 percent remain jobless for a year or longer, the highest rate of any age group.

Workers who have a post-secondary education are less likely to be unemployed, but once they lose their jobs, they may remain out of work for an extended period. Twenty-one percent of unemployed workers with at least a bachelor's degree have been out of work for a year or longer, as compared to 27 percent of unemployed workers with high school diplomas and 23 percent of unemployed workers who have less than a high school degree.

The feds aren't doing shit about it; they prefer to play games with people's lives.