WASHINGTON — President Obama’s top economic adviser Sunday touted the improved economy even as he called for an extension of jobless benefits.
“It is true the economy is improving and showing more momentum. The unemployment rate in general is falling,” Gene Sperling, chairman of the National Economic Council, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“But what we’re finding is that the worst legacy of the Great Recession is that there is a crisis of long-term unemployment.”
The Senate will vote Monday on a bill that would extend long-term jobless benefits for three more months.
It would restore unemployment checks for about 1.3 million Americans whose benefits expired in December.