Mount Horeb Man To Attend State Of the Union

Brian Krueger, a Mount Horeb man who lost his job and his shot at extended unemployment benefits, will be among those in the crowd for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

Krueger is a steamfitter who was first laid off from a heating and cooling company in November 2010. He found work again in August 2011 before being laid off last June.

Krueger said he was about to qualify for extended unemployment when Congress decided not to renew it.

“We got the letter a couple of days before Christmas, and I handed it to my wife and said, ‘Hey, look! Merry Christmas! We just lost our benefits.’”

Krueger said he’s still looking for work aggressively and would much rather have a job than receive unemployment. Krueger said until he finds a job, unemployment benefits would help him pay the bills.

“A lot of people that I’ve been listening to on TV seem to think that we’re just sitting around looking to collect a paycheck,” said Krueger. “That’s not the case.”

Krueger is attending Tuesday night’s State of the Union address as a guest of U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, who’s pushing for a renewal of the benefits.

“I think when you talk to Brian, you can tell people are looking for work, they want to work, and as the economy is slowly getting better, it’s also leaving a lot of people behind,” said Pocan. “And during this time is the completely wrong time to stop these emergency benefits until people are back to work.”

So far, efforts to extend emergency unemployment benefits have stalled in Congress, where some Republicans want any further extensions offset by some kind of spending cuts elsewhere.