Political Quotes

“Well, what we face is the highest number of long-term unemployed for over 60 years, 6.3 million people, long-term unemployed. We have 15 million people looking for work. I came in just in the middle of the statement from my friend from California. I don't think this is the time for us to be arguing over past programs. I have never understood what the minority was thinking about in terms of job creation. They have voted against Recovery Act bills. But this isn't the time to be using the plight of the unemployed to try to make points about previous actions. This is the time for us to once again face up to the fact that we have huge numbers of people who are looking for work and can't find it. This is the time for us to understand the pain for individuals in this circumstance. We passed a jobs bill here some months ago, unfortunately, without bipartisan support. But I don't want to argue about that. We should be talking about providing. It's really not a safety net; it's a subsistence issue. It's people who have been laid off through no fault of their own who need a continuation of unemployment compensation. If we do not do this, the estimate is that over 1 million people nationally will lose their unemployment benefits in March. That's 1 month alone, 1.2 million people. If that isn't sobering enough to get us to focus on an extension of unemployment compensation and health benefits for these people, I don't know what else we will do.…”