Hilda L. Solis: “tonight when President Bush begins to talk about the state of the Union, I hope that he includes remarks that will…”

“tonight when President Bush begins to talk about the state of the Union, I hope that he includes remarks that will address the plight of the people that I represent in my district. On the economy, the President will probably talk about how our country is coming out of a recession, and in some parts of my district the recession has been there for 3 years. In fact, in at least two areas I represent, in East Los Angeles, the unemployment rate is still above 9 percent. In the city of South El Monte, neighboring the community I live by, which is about 70 percent Latino, I would say the recession has not gone home. It is there. It is 9 percent. Over 60,000 Californians in my State have exhausted their Federal unemployment benefits and another 340,000 Californians will lose those benefits in the next 4 months alone. Long-term unemployment is at a 20-year high. President Bush claimed that the $330 billion so-called jobs through tax cuts would help create 5.5 million new jobs by the end of 2004 or 306,000 a month. The thousand jobs added to the economy in December left the Nation 305,000 short of the Bush job promise in that month alone. Grocery workers in the State of California, 70,000, are right now on strike. They have no employment and no unemployment insurance, these families that we are talking about, not just people that have somehow disregarded their employment status.”