Obama asserts that giving money to the unemployed is a good economic course of action....your interpretation?

Question

Straight from Obama's Site:

Extend and Expand Unemployment Insurance: Barack Obama believes we must extend and strengthen the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program to address the needs of the long-term unemployed, who currently make up nearly one-fifth of the unemployed and are often older workers who have lost their jobs in manufacturing or other industries and have a difficult time finding new employment. Expanding UI is one of the most effective ways to combat economic turmoil; every dollar invested in UI benefits results in $1.73 in economic output. Obama is calling for a temporary expansion of the UI program for those who have exhausted their current eligibility. Stimulus: $10 billion.

Is his assertion that 1 dollar put in equals 1.73 in terms of economic stimulation true? What are the ramifications of this? Explain.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Then why do they limit it to only $10 billion?  It should be at least $100 trillion, so we can profit by $73 trillion, and split all proceeds to every single american citizen, and we wouldn't have to work for the next 10 years.  We need Change, and he's gonna give it to us.

Obama 2008

Answer 2

Of course, people on unemployment will stay on unemployment longer in order to milk the system for all it's worth.  

Obama's dumb idea will just induce people to stay out of work longer.

Answer 3

Extending Unemployment benefits during economic downturns is standard policy  and has done many times in the past and Bill Clinton also put in retraining programs  for displaced workers  so this is not new  or a real change.

Money given to the long term unemployed is more  effective than tax  cuts at stimulating the economy because   most of money spent not saved like over half the money  from the stimulus tax cut were, so the multiplier factor is larger.

Answer 4

I don't know how he comes to that conclusion, but I would still support an expansion of unemployment benefits, considering that the economy is in such distress that unemployment will be become increasingly problematic.