Political Quotes

“pending before the Congress now is debate about unemployment benefits. On January 1 1.3 million Americans got a notice that they were not going to receive any more unemployment benefit checks. These are people out of work through no fault of their own who are required, under law, to be actively pursuing additional employment and regularly reporting to the government. For that, they receive average unemployment benefits of about $300 a week. Three hundred dollars a week is not a generous amount in this day and age. It is very difficult for any family to get by. They are going to have to dip into their savings to make rent payments, utility payments, put gas in the car to look for a job, and pay for the cell telephone they need in order to go looking for work. So we are now debating as to whether we should extend those unemployment benefits which were cut off on January 1. I think we should. Historically we have. Even with lower unemployment rates in the past, we have extended unemployment benefits. Think about this for a second. The average person unemployed in America takes 38 weeks to find a job. However, we are cutting off unemployment benefits at 27 weeks in most places. That means people will have 10 or 11 weeks on average without any support. What happens to a family under those circumstances? Awful things happen.…”