By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-909666.mp3
LANSING, MI –
Eighty-seven-thousand people in Michigan will lose unemployment benefits next week, unless the U.S. Senate resolves a partisan standoff.
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The number of people losing their unemployment benefits in Michigan would double within a month, and balloon to more than 400,000 by the end of the year.
"That's a huge number of people, not just in Michigan, but across the country," she says. "That's why, in no uncertain terms, we're strongly urging the Senate Republicans to reconsider this because it will hurt people."
That's Governor Granholm. She's upset that not one Senate Republican voted for an extension of unemployment benefits. And she says it will put another huge hole in the state's budget. That's because a half-billion dollars in Medicaid funds are also stalled by the stand-off. Without that money Granholm says the state would have to make cuts that were previously unthinkable.