Emanuel Cleaver: “This is a very sad time for me and, I hope, for others. Unemployment is at 9.2 percent. For African Americans, it's at…”

“This is a very sad time for me and, I hope, for others. Unemployment is at 9.2 percent. For African Americans, it's at 16.2. If you use the Labor Department's U6 standards, it's almost 30 percent. And all we want to do here is argue--argue. These are real human beings who are out here struggling. I saw a lady the other day working at a hotel, cleaning up, with a college degree from Howard University. She can't get a job. And so what are we going to do in Congress? While Congress likes to bash, the jobless need cash. What do we need to do to get things going? Well, we need to stop being so mean. Mean, that's what we are down here. A bumblebee cannot sting and make honey at the same time. And what we have decided to be in Congress is a big group of 435 stingers. ____________________”