Mike Levin: “One of the issues is fiscal irresponsibility, and what the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) and others are…”

“One of the issues is fiscal irresponsibility, and what the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) and others are suggesting is we have a deep hole, so dig it deeper. And as the gentleman from California (Mr. Matsui) has pointed out, what you are digging out are Social Security monies. These are monies that people pay in taxes for Social Security; and that is the height of fiscal irresponsibility. But I want to comment on the second theme about unemployment compensation. It is disgraceful that the majority intends to leave here without raising one little finger to help people who are unemployed through no fault of their own in this country. We passed earlier a temporary emergency unemployment compensation program. It terminates on December 28, 2002; but you have not done a darn thing to try to extend it or improve it. So here are the numbers... 860,000 workers whose benefits ran out by the end of September and who remain unemployed. This is through no fault of their own or they would not be receiving this money.”