While much of the nation is embroiled in the national healthcare debate, unemployment rates have reached double digits, and millions of people have exhausted unemployment benefits.

Fortunately, relief is on the way.

President Barack Obama last Friday signed the Worker, Homeowners and Business Assistance Act of 2009, which changes the maximum number of weeks a person can collect Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 2 benefits from 13 weeks to 14 weeks, and established EUC Tier 3 benefits for those who exhaust their EUC Tier 2 claims. The law went into effect last Sunday.

According to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, 7,000 Oklahomans may benefit from the new law.

Unemployment claimants are first eligible for up to 26 weeks of regular state unemployment benefits from the OESC. Once these regular benefits are exhausted, claimants can receive federal extended unemployment benefits known as EUC Tier 1 for up to 20 additional weeks.

When a claimant has collected all eligible EUC Tier 1 payments, he can apply for EUC Tier 2, now for a maximum of 14 weeks. After EUC Tier 2 is exhausted, claimants can apply for EUC Tier 3 and collect extended unemployment benefits for up to 13 weeks. This means a person could collect unemployment benefits for approximately 18 months.

Local resident Lori Jumper was surprised to learn of the extension.

“You’re kidding,” she said. “I mean, I’m glad those people are going to get help, but there are jobs out there. All they have to do is go to WorkForce Oklahoma and look. My husband and I went by there just to take a peek, and there were over 300 jobs available if not here, then in Tulsa and Muskogee. I know it might be hard for some people to drive a long way, but Muskogee’s not that far.”

An additional tier of benefits was added for states where the unemployment rate averages at least 8.5 percent for a three-month period. Oklahoma’s most recently released seasonally adjusted unemployment rate – September 2009 – was 6.7 percent.

In Cherokee County, the September unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, up 2 percent from the previous year.

Some people have suggested a better plan for the unemployed may be instituting a program similar to that of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Projects Administration – the largest New Deal Agency, which employed millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.

According to Wikipedia, almost every community in the United States has a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural communities. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion.

Kathy Tibbits drew unemployment benefits for a short time in 1975.

“[When I drew unemployment] it was $16 per week, so I mostly ate rice and bouillon,” she said. “I was grateful to have the basic minimum, because it’s scary to lose one’s income. No one would choose to live on $16 a week just to get a free ride.”

She believes people might be better off looking at unemployment compensation as “just a basic, bottom safety net.”

“And spend money in areas that will move people toward big solutions, such as toward jobs in the green economy,” she said. “We’d be helping people become employable, but would shift their skills to smarter choices. For instance, workers could build bicycles instead of Hummers.”

Tibbits said some of the WPA projects have stood the test of time, and the endeavor helped pull the country out of the Great Depression.

“In [Sequoyah] City Park, look at the bridges and the rock erosion control banks,” she said. “What if we were to pay it forward for the next three generations and keep the money moving in our economy, too? There are some great natural stone buildings, such as the cabins at Greenleaf Park, thanks to the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps, which was popular work for the men in this area.”

Local chiropractor Shannon Grimes said he drew unemployment benefits when his enlistment in the military was up. Like many, he believed he was “getting back what he paid in” during his time in the military, as well as previous employment. He believes that in taking advantage of the benefits, he learned how these programs “enable or worsen the problems they are designed to help.”

“I was healthy and able to work, but why work when I can make as much or more [without having to]?” said Grimes.

He said he followed the rules set out by the Employment Security Commission, but there was a greater financial incentive to remain unemployed. This is often the case, as unemployed people who had made decent wages can draw as much money through unemployment benefits as they can working a 40-hour week at minimum wage.

“The bottom line is the unemployment benefits and similar programs are well-intended failures that cause more problems and waste than they do good,” said Grimes. “I am sure many out there use the benefit as intended, as a temporary safety net, and seek to get off it as quickly as possible. No doubt it has actually succeeded in helping many through tough times and to get back on their feet as intended.”

But, Grimes said, there are always people who will take advantage of the system, without regard for its cost to taxpayers.

“So you end up with basically three types of people in the system: those who don’t want to be on it and get off it as quickly as possible; those who feel justified in ‘getting back’ what they have paid in; and those who simply take and take and take as long as they are able,” he said.

Grimes said he understands many people have genuine hardships, or even lack the ability to be employed.

“Too often, it is these very folks who actually seem to be unable to make valid use of the programs, while others simply take advantage,” said Grimes. “If our society did not have unemployment benefits, or even other programs, most of these people with real hardships would still be helped, and I believe likely helped better through private, non-government charity.”

Grimes believes that without government-funded programs like unemployment compensation, money and/or wealth would be more efficiently used, providing several benefits.

“[It would put] more money in the hands of businesses and workers [which] would mean more money for savings and development,” he said. “That is to say that businesses would likely have more opportunities for employment, and those working would be able to make their dollars stretch farther. Those who leech off the system literally take wealth out [of the economy] that would otherwise be reinvested or saved to create more wealth and industry down the line. And, let’s face it, most people are honest enough not to steal from people they know, but taking advantage through the faceless government does not feel like stealing from others. Never mind that the government does not have money it has not taken from others.”

Grimes isn’t convinced public works projects are the way to go, either.

“We end up with these inefficient, wasteful, abused programs with good intentions, much as we had with the WPA back in the Depression, instead of letting businesses and people fail so things can restart with lessons learned,” he said. “Most reading this would do what they can to help a friend, neighbor, or even stranger, and would even be able to do more of it if they were able to keep more of their earnings, but you would also stop supporting someone who was taking advantage of, or wasting, your charity. The government and welfare programs do not have the personal relationships nor the monetary motivation to be as wise with the money in the unemployment or welfare systems.”

Grimes believes programs like the WPA ultimately end up tying up the workforce, as well as money, on projects that are unnecessary or economically unsound.

“Keeping the work force and resources misallocated in such ways just keeps the system from resetting and putting those resources to the most efficient use, [which ultimately] prolongs the problems.”