Tom Harkin: “I want to thank my friend and our majority whip, Senator Durbin, for laying out, I think in very stark and honest and…”

“I want to thank my friend and our majority whip, Senator Durbin, for laying out, I think in very stark and honest and open terms, what we are facing in this country today. I wish to pick up on that and to carry it a little further in talking about the number of people who are unemployed, what is happening to people across America today who can't find work, while the Congress sits here immobilized, unable to pass an extension of unemployment insurance benefits. It is unconscionable what is happening to so many people in America, through no fault of their own--people who are at the end of the line. They are looking to us, asking us to do something. Yet the Congress sits here immobilized, unable to act. We are unable to act because a small minority here in the Senate on the Republican side refuses to let us move ahead with an extension of unemployment insurance benefits. If we could ever have a vote--if we could get a vote on it--we would get over 50 votes. A majority would vote for the extension. But once again, under the rules of the Senate, a minority of the Senate gets to decide what we vote on. I wonder how many students in government classes that are being taught in high school today, even in college, are being taught that the majority does not govern in the Senate. I wonder how many understand that in our democratic form of government, 41 Senators decide what we vote on--41. Not 51 but 41 Senators decide what legislation comes before this body.”