Political Quotes

“About half an hour ago, Leader McConnell gave an outline of the bill that will be before the Senate in regard to carrying on where the CARES Act left off. Those of us who are chairmen of various committees or have input into this process would like to go into some detail--but not in-depth detail--of our parts of the bill. I am chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and within our jurisdiction, our proposals take on several issues facing Americans during the crisis. For unemployment insurance, we boost the Federal Government's reimbursement to local governments and nonprofits to 75 percent, up from 50 percent in the first CARES Act. We do that to prevent further layoffs from local governments and nonprofit organizations. In the same legislation we maintain some of the current boosted benefits, but we must also responsibly hone those programs to target help where it is really needed. Our bill transitions from a flat rate to a replacement of 70 percent of lost wages for people who have become unemployed. This is a much more responsible approach that we didn't have time to work out in the first CARES Act. Regardless, the boosted unemployment benefit is significantly more than Democratic Senate and Democratic Presidents approved in the 2009 economic crisis, which, by the way, was only an additional $25 a month when we had the worst recession in this country since the Great Depression of the 1930s. So I heard people cry just a few minutes ago about our not doing enough.…”