The impact of the GOP effort to kill unemployment benefits for millions of Americans this Christmas

Via Huff Post Hill:

Marie Roth said she fell behind on house payments when Congress spent nearly two months dithering over a reauthorization of extended unemployment benefits last summer. Now that lawmakers are dithering again, she's worried she'll lose the house. "I'm trying not to freak out. Just kinda praying and hoping for the best," Roth, 40, told HuffPost. "I keep looking for work and it's just not happening. There's nothing there."

Ken Watson of Batavia, Ohio, learned via email today that he'd be cut off from his unemployment benefits this weekend. "I thought I was good into January. I was so shocked today," Watson told HuffPost. Here's what the cutoff letter said: "Because federal funding for this program is ending on Saturday, December 4, 2010, you will not be able to receive these extended benefits for weeks beyond that date. Even if there is a balance showing on your account, these amounts cannot be paid because of the ending of federal funding. If Congress enacts legislation reinstating funding for this program, and that funding is retroactive, you will be notified." Watson is one of 800,000 facing an immediate cutoff from the Extended Benefits program in the next week. He said he's got five kids. "I don't know what I'm gonna do," he said. "We'll figure something out."