Despite the best efforts of President Barack Obama and his fellow liberals in Congress, the high unemployment rate continued to cause problems in 2010.

One of the biggest controversies of the year was the continued efforts by Democrats to make unemployment benefits last as long as possible. They managed to shame Republicans into extending the federal benefits plan incrementally throughout the year, but in the final lame-duck session of 2010, they reached a deal with Republicans that would extend the Bush Tax Cuts across the board while also extending unemployment benefits to 99 weeks.

While most economists will tout the economic benefits of unemployment extensions, very few of them will acknowledge the very significant drawbacks. Extending unemployment benefits is an expensive undertaking and in most cases, the money is borrowed and added to the federal deficit. The immediate benefits of these cash infusions are, of course, quite positive -- until the money runs out and must be paid back.

The emotional issues surrounding unemployment extensions manifested into a bitter Congressional battle throughout all of 2010. In March, retiring Republican Jim Bunning was the lone voice of reason when the first round of extensions were being discussed. Bunning objected to a $10 billion extension that would have added more than $10 billion to the already-enormous federal deficit. Bunning was scapegoated for the opposing measure and falsely accused of filibustering. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid froze the process, when he very easily could have simply called for a vote.

The final version of the bill was signed into law on July 22, 2010. It added $34 billion to the deficit ($10 billion of which went toward unemployment benefits extensions) and only extended jobless benefits for six months. The previous extension, passed on Nov. 6, 2009, did the same thing but only cost $2.6 billion -- perhaps most importantly, it was fully paid for. The steep increase demonstrates how bad the unemployment situation had become in those six months.
By the end of 2010, the economy began to show a few signs of resuscitation, and the steep decline in unemployment appeared to be leveling off. Nevertheless, the steep dip the jobless rate took in 2010 made it one of the top stories of the year.