Political Quotes

“you know in your State of New York and I know in my State of Illinois what this recession really means. In December, the recession hit my home State of Illinois hard. We lost 1,200 jobs a day in the month of December--36,000 jobs. That is a hit that continues, I am afraid, in the month of January and maybe even in the early part of February. The overall unemployment rate for America is 7.6 percent. Madam President, 3.6 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of the recession several months ago. Clearly, that is the element which is driving our discussion now about what to do. There are some on the other side of the aisle in Congress who argue that the best thing to do is nothing, let the economy solve its own problems. But, sadly, many of us are meeting the casualties of this recession, and many of us know them personally because they are in our families. I talk to a lot of my friends who are struggling. It does not sound like much, you know, when they say: My hours have been cut back. A friend of mine, a lady who is raising three children, a single mom raising three kids, had her hours cut back. Her agency does counseling for drug addiction. So she is only working three-quarters of the regular time she was expecting. Well, as a result of that cutback in her pay, she could not pay her rent, and, sadly, she is now facing some of the hardest decisions of her life. So just a cutback in pay for many people who live on the margin makes all the difference.”