Doris Matsui: “Mr. Speaker, since the gentleman from the State of Illinois (Mr. Weller) was kind enough to advise me of the amount of…”

“Mr. Speaker, since the gentleman from the State of Illinois (Mr. Weller) was kind enough to advise me of the amount of marriage penalty relief in the year 2010 and beyond that Californians will receive, I thought it would be important just to reciprocate and advise the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) that in the State of Illinois 169,000 unemployed people would be benefited just by extending the unemployed benefit insurance program by a few months. And it would seem to me that that is what we should be doing now, taking care of those people that are unemployed so they can begin to spend money and maybe jump-start our economy and create a little more consumer purchasing power. Second, I might just point out too, and we do not need to get into the substance of this issue but perhaps it does make some sense, we are predicting deficits as far as the eye can see. And a vote in favor of this resolution, just as a vote we took some months ago on extending the marriage penalty beyond 2010, will invade the Social Security trust fund, thereby further jeopardizing Social Security recipients that are currently receiving benefits. And I think that the American public should be aware of that.”