Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out today, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay.

Unless Congress changes its mind, benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.

That means Christmas is out of the question for Wayne Pittman, 46, of Lawrenceville, Ga., and his wife and 9-year-old son. The carpenter was working up to 80 hours a week at the beginning of the decade but saw that drop to 15 hours before it dried up entirely. His last $297 check will go to necessities, not presents.

"I have a little boy, and that’s kind of hard to explain to him," Pittman said.

The average weekly unemployment benefit in the U.S. is $302.90, though it varies widely depending on how states calculate the payment. Because of supplemental state programs and other factors, it is hard to know for sure who will lose their benefits at any given time. But the Labor Department estimates that without a Congress-approved extension, about 2 million people will be cut off by Christmas.

About 4,100 Hawaii residents per month would stop getting unemployment checks if Congress does not approve a continuation of extended jobless benefits, the state labor director said yesterday.

Labor Director Pearl Imada Iboshi also said the state Labor Department has notified the federal government that it might ask to borrow $30 million in December to help the state pay people in their initial 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Congressional opponents of extending the benefits beyond this month say fiscal responsibility should come first. Republicans in the House and Senate, along with a few conservative Democrats, say they are open to an extension, but not if it means adding to the $13.8 trillion national debt.

Even if Congress does lengthen benefits, cash assistance is at best a stopgap measure, said Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance Ministry in Charlotte, N.C., which has seen 20,000 new clients since the Great Recession started in December 2007.

"We’re going to have to have a new conversation with the people who are still suffering, about the potentially drastic changes they’re going to have to make to stay out of the homeless shelter," she said.

Forget Christmas presents. What so-called "99ers" want most is what remains elusive in the worst economy in generations: a job.

"I am not searching for a job; I am begging for one," said Felicia Robbins, 30, as she prepared to move out of a homeless shelter in Pensacola, Fla., where she and her five children have been living. She is using the last of her cash reserves, about $500, to move into a small, unfurnished rental home.

Ninety-nine weeks might seem like a long time to find a job. But even as the economy grows, jobs that vanished in the Great Recession have not returned. The private sector added about 159,000 jobs in October — half as many as needed to reduce the unemployment rate of 9.6 percent, which the Federal Reserve expects will hover around 9 percent for all of next year.