Political Quotes

“I am privileged to yield 2 minutes to another distinguished member of our committee, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott). (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, you have just heard the Republicans say to unemployed workers whose benefits are expiring: We don't care. Forty billion dollars, the biggest unpaid part of this bill, is for unemployment benefits to the 1.2 million people whose benefits are going to expire by the end of June. Now, you just heard a Member of the other side say: We don't care what happens to them. Well, they also don't care about the small businesses because, for those of you who have never been unemployed, when you get that check and when you have no money, you take it out and spend it. You pay for rent. You go to stores and buy things. There are all of those store owners, and nobody is coming in to buy because nobody has any money. If you think starving the children of unemployed people by saying, We're not going to give you money to go to the store and get food for your kids, is going to somehow make them go out and find work in a time when we have six people looking for every job in this country, you simply don't understand the human condition. Now, The Wall Street Journal can't understand. They said, We can't understand why unemployment benefits have anything to do with jobs.…”