Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleague from New York. Many of the things he has said on the floor this morning reflect what I have seen back in Illinois in the last 5 or 6 weeks that we have been home, people I have spoken to who are genuinely suffering because of the coronavirus pandemic and the state of the American economy. There was a moment here on the floor of the Senate earlier this year when the gravity of the situation brought us together. It was March 26--almost 6 months ago--when we voted 96 to 0 to pass the CARES Act, the $3 trillion effort to try to keep America's economy alive and breathing during this pandemic and the impact it has had on all of our lives. That is $3 trillion--money for the unemployed, substantial sums for those who are about to see their lives transformed overnight. Laid off and fired from jobs that may never return, they tried to keep their families together with mortgage payments, rent payments, automobile loans, the credit responsibilities they faced, and just putting food on the table. It was a wrenching, disquieting situation for so many of those families, and we said that we should give them $600 a week--$600 a week--in Federal assistance to get through this period. What we did not only helped those families, but it helped the economy. The money those families received was spent almost instantaneously. That is understandable. They are struggling to survive.…”