lot of them cannot even afford to come down here for the training. >> reporter: but professor jeff dorfman says government benefits can't go on forever. >> our compassion has never been unlimited in this sense. we always eventually cut people off. we already had some mechanism for deciding at some point we've got to stop paying for you. >> and some argue we're not there yet, there in the recovery where we should cut back? we still need to fund for an extended period of time? >> the longest we've ever kept benefits before is 35 months after the end of a recession, and we're 55 months now. so we're 20 months, over a year and a half longer than we've ever provided these extended benefits for. >> reporter: dorfman believes if the government is going to intervene that money could be better used retraining for new jobs. for now, with congress at an impasse, it looks like trista and nearly 2 million others will have to survive without the federal lifeline they've come to count on in these hard times. >> i mean, it dampens your spirit a little bit, but the only way you can prosper, i've learned is