On the recordJune 22, 2010
I thank my friend from New York for those very stirring words about the families he talked with. I think all of us can relate to that, as he was talking about someone from New York each day going to a different city and State to look for work. I go back home every weekend. I go home Fridays and come back on Mondays. I am very frequently now on a plane with somebody who is coming to work in DC--or to look for work--from Michigan. Every week they are going back and forth. People are willing to get on planes to find jobs and to work. People are getting on planes now from Michigan and going across the country. I have talked to people who go from one end of the country to another on an airplane because they want to work. People want to work. The idea that somehow we should treat this economic recession differently than any other recession in the history of our country-- different than any other Republican President or any other Democratic President, any other Republican Congress or any other Democratic Congress, by somehow saying we are not going to categorize it as an emergency--which it is--to make that change, which is what we are talking about here on our side with our colleagues--to make that change, to allow that to happen would be to say to these individuals that we do not understand what is happening in their lives.
