A Dangerous Crossroads

By Mitchell Hirsch
June 2, 2010 - 10:24am ET

The following was originally published at Working America's "Main Street" blog.

Ominous signs emerged last week that a threat to undermine an economic recovery is afoot, and that threat has particularly severe consequences for America’s 15 million unemployed.

Before voting on an already scaled-down jobs and jobless aid bill, House Democrats succumbed to pressure from conservative Blue Dogs and nervous moderates and weakened the bill further, eliminating some of its core provisions.

Then, despite narrowly passing the bill on a vote of 214 to 205, the House joined the Senate in leaving town for a week-long recess — allowing eligibility for extended federal unemployment insurance programs to expire June 2.