PRESIDENT OBAMA: By the way, Christmas time is no time for Congress to tell more than 1 million of these Americans that they have lost their unemployment insurance, which is what will happen if Congress does not act before they leave on their holiday vacation.



The point is, these programs are not typically hammocks for people to just lie back and relax. these programs are almost always temporary means for hard-working people to stay afloat while they try to find a new job or are going to school to retrain themselves for the jobs that are out there. Or sometimes just to cope with a bout of bad luck.