Now being called “Unemployment Insurance for Clunkers,” as many as 1.5 million jobless Americans will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits - ending what for some has been the last stand against foreclosures and destitution.

Laid-off workers in about half of the United States can collect benefits for up to 79 weeks, the longest period since the unemployment insurance program was created in the 1930s.

Hundreds of thousands of workers have already used up their benefits, and the numbers are expected to soar in the months to come, reaching half a million by the end of September and 1.5 million by the end of the year.

Nine million Americans are now collecting unemployment with payments averaging just over $300 per week.  While many recipients find new jobs before exhausting their benefits, large numbers in the current recession have been unable to find work for a year or more.

In 2008, as the recession deepened, Congress provided 33 extra weeks of benefits. Earlier this year, President Obama’s stimulus plan offered an additional 20 weeks in states where unemployment surpassed 8 percent, if they adopted new federally recommended rules governing these extra weeks.

So, what’s next?  Well, if we can bail out the clunkers, can’t we bail out the unemployed workers?  Of course we can, just print more money – more printing means more print jobs, and then more ink jobs, and more quality assurance jobs…..