Mr. President, I agree with my colleague and friend from Texas about the fact that people are scratching their heads. People in Michigan are wondering what in the world is going on right now. We are still trying to recover from a recession and we have a long way to go for most Americans--even though the unemployment rate has come down substantially in Michigan. At one point, we were at 15.7 percent, and that is just what you count, in terms of unemployment. Now it is 10.7 percent and going down. Still, it is way too high. Families are under water, their houses are under water, and they are trying to recover in terms of their incomes and hold it together and look for new work or job training. And what about the kids in college and all that comes with that? Some in the middle class may be struggling to stay in the middle class, or just get into the middle class. Small businesses are wondering what the heck is going on around here when they are trying to, hopefully--folks who held on through the recession and trying to come back, trying to invest, keep the doors open, hire more people--they are wondering what in the world is going on here. We are in a situation where these negotiations have now just become so political and the discussion so unrelated to what the budget is about and, most importantly, to what people care about.…
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