Political Quotes

“Madam President, I know an issue that was always important to Robert Byrd was the working men and women of West Virginia. If there was one thing that innervated him and inspired him, it was the memory of his youth and growing up in the most impoverished circumstances where he could not attend college and had to go to work straight out of high school. It was not until many years later that he completed college and law degrees as a Member of the Congress. It was an extraordinary feat to be able to achieve that. I think of him when I think of the bill we considered last week because it was a bill that tried to help struggling families across America in the midst of this recession. We tried to extend unemployment benefits for those who are out of work across America. The estimates range from 8 million to 14 million Americans--people who had a job and are now out of a job through no fault of their own. There are an estimated five unemployed people for every available job. So it is not a situation, which some have said, where there is a lack of effort on their part. It is a very hard thing to find a job. I have visited unemployment offices in Chicago, in Springfield, and all over my State and met with these people, many of whom are desperate. They put out their resumes online in an effort to try to get an opportunity for a job and just cannot get any response whatsoever.…”