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October 9, 2009 (LPAC)—While the Nero and his Congressional allies fiddled, 400,000 Americans lost their unemployment insurance benefits during the month of September.

The House approved legislation last week that would extend benefits by 13 weeks for people in 27 states with jobless rates of at least 8.5% in August. But that means that the unemployed in the other 13 states would not have their benefits extended under the House legislation.

As a result, passage of the legislation was delayed in the Senate, where a number of Senators objected to the House plan because their states would be excluded.

The result: Benefits ran out for about 400,000 Americans in September.

Under heat from a population in which, according to a report released by the Economic Policy Institute, nearly one in four American families has suffered a job loss over the past year, the Senate Democrats late Thursday afternoon finally reached a deal to give 14 more weeks of benefits to jobless workers in all 50 states. Workers in states with an unemployment rate of 8.5% or more would received six weeks on top of that.