Political Quotes

“The filibuster that has been waged by the Republicans in the Senate has gone on now for 2 months to stop unemployment benefits. What the minority leader just offered was a 1-month extension. We have been limping and dragging our way from one short extension to another, and that is not fair. It is not fair to 80,000 people in Illinois, unemployed, who just lost their unemployment benefits because of the Republican filibuster. Why do the Republicans oppose this bill? Well, the good reason they say is the deficit. But let me tell you the real reason. The real reason is because this bill pays for virtually all of the programs except unemployment by making changes in the Tax Code, changes to which the Republicans object. Let me give you an example. One of the changes would eliminate the loopholes in the Tax Code which allow American businesses to relocate American jobs overseas. We know what that means to manufacturing in this country. We are losing good-paying jobs right and left, and the Tax Code rewards the companies that make those bad decisions. We want to eliminate that, and the Republicans want to protect it. Secondly, this bill provides help to small businesses across America, and we pay for it. Third, this bill will provide money to governments so we would not have to lay off teachers, policemen, firefighters, and nurses. That is going to happen. We are trying to send emergency money back to the States to avoid that.”