Bill Clinton: “I appreciate greatly the wonderful cooperation that I received in working out the extension of unemployment compensation…”

“I appreciate greatly the wonderful cooperation that I received in working out the extension of unemployment compensation for those who needed to complete their 13 weeks who were unemployed, and for those who were going onto unemployment for the first time. Our problem is--and this is where I think the nub of our difference is--we have this growing number of literally millions of people who have exhausted their benefits and are looking for work and cannot find it. I understand and I respect the argument from the other side, although I disagree that the tax package that is about to be passed today or tomorrow is going to generate jobs and economic growth. I do not think it will. I think it will, in fact, make our economic situation worse and continue to put people out of work. But, unfortunately, there are a lot of innocent people caught in the middle of this debate, people who are not sitting here on the floor of the Senate, people who are not going to get a big tax break, people who are out of work and cannot find a job in this economy. At some point we have to take responsibility for these people.”