Political Quotes

“I am glad we are talking about unemployment insurance. We are not showboating--we want to vote--and you misunderstand, if I might say so, the issue. If we don't act on December 28, 1.3 million people will lose every cent of unemployment insurance. These are people who have exhausted their State benefits. They have exhausted them. These are people who have been laid off through no fault of their own, and they are looking for work. When Walmart came to D.C. and asked for applications, 23,000 people applied for 600 jobs. That is the shortage of jobs for people. So these 1.3 million people are people who have exhausted their State benefits and who are long-term unemployed. Historically, we have never, never ended these emergency provisions when long-term unemployment has been as high as it is today--37 percent--and we have already reduced the average number of unemployment insurance weeks in this country to 54. I want to point out to the gentleman and to everybody else that, if we don't act, another 1.9 million unemployed people will lose every cent of their unemployment insurance in the next 6 months. So, under this bill, SGR is now extended for 3 months. We asked the Rules Committee to make in order an amendment--paid for--to extend unemployment insurance for 3 months, and here is what we said: if we can prevent a 25 percent cut to doctors' pay, surely, we can prevent a 100 percent cut for 1.3 million uninsured. So what has been the response?…”