Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleague and leader on the Democratic side, Senator Schumer, for his specific, articulate, and direct analysis of where we stand today in the Senate. Faced with the worst public health crisis in 100 years, faced with the worst economic crisis in 75 to 80 years, the message from the Republican side of the aisle is ``Think small. Do as little as possible. Let's see how this works out.'' At a time when we have unemployment figures breaking all records, when we have 10 times the unemployment claims in Illinois that we did a year ago--I might add, 10 times the unemployment claims in the Commonwealth of Kentucky that they did a year ago--we, instead, are hearing from the Republican side of the aisle that the problem with our economy is not unemployment; it is the fact that the people who are unemployed are being given too much money. Right now we have a Federal benefit package worth $600 a week that was enacted in the CARES Act on March 26. That expires in 3 days. It is a $600-a-week Federal supplement over the State payment. What the Republicans have suggested is to cut that $600 Federal supplement to $200, and then they turn and say: Well, what we really want to do is to compensate the workers with 70 percent of what they were earning when they were laid off. There is a real serious problem here that they are not disclosing to the American people.…”