The latest bit of obstruction being staged by a Senate conservative, done in the name of limiting federal spending, is going to end up costing cash-strapped states millions of dollars as well as potentially causing millions of workers to lose their unemployment benefits.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) continues his blockage of an extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits that expired last weekend. Meanwhile, the Senate has no votes scheduled until Tuesday.

That means that states will now start cutting off payments to people receiving federally funded extended unemployment benefits, paid to people who have exhausted their standard 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. A total of about 5 million people depend on those benefits today. They won’t all be cut off at once, but several hundred thousand stand to lose benefits effective this weekend, according to the National Association of State Workforce Agencies—the trade group for state unemployment offices—and that number will grow each week that Bunning and his conservative allies in the Senate succeed in blocking action on a benefit extension. In addition to this, thousands of federal workers will be put out of work.

This week Democratic leaders are going to attempt to pass a long-tern unemployment extension. Tell the Senate to stop the political games, get unemployment aid to the jobless and then get to work on a real jobs bill.

Please RT to send a message to Senate Republicans, and click on the link above to contact your senators.