On the recordMarch 2, 2010
as I stand here today, it would be pretty easy to solve this problem. Senator Bunning needs to stand down. He just needs to stand down. He made his point. He argues that we should pay for emergency funding. I voted for pay-go, but we do have a clause that says if it is a real emergency, we do not have to pay for it. The reason that is important is if we do what Senator Bunning wants and we extend this jobless help and we extend the highway trust fund and, on the other hand, we cut the economic recovery moneys which are all obligated and on which work is about to start, we are not doing anything for the country. Let's do this right. Many of us who are standing here saw terrible deficit and debt problems during the Clinton years. You know what we did? We fixed it. We had room for emergencies. But we fixed it by going to pay-go. When there were emergencies, we stepped back. I think it is fair to note that Senator Bunning is very agitated about the fact that we would extend jobless benefits without cutting spending in job creation. Yet when it was time for him to vote for tax breaks for the wealthiest people who earn over $1 million, he could care less that it was put on Uncle Sam's credit card. When it was time to pay for the war in Iraq, oh, put it on the credit card of the country. But all of a sudden, it is help to our families who need it so desperately and we are going to have to cut other programs that are providing jobs. It does not make sense.…
