On the recordFebruary 22, 2010
Mr. President, jobs. We are here today to help create jobs. Everyone is thinking about jobs and ways to create more of them. Business owners, workers, community leaders across the country, especially in my home State of Montana, are asking what Congress is doing to create jobs. I might say when I was home last week, Mr. President, I had some job forums. At one of them, we had lots of different ways to create jobs and a lot of ideas. At the end, I said: OK, everybody. What does this all boil down to? Give me one or two or three things that we can do to create more jobs. There was a big chorus of: more jobs, more jobs, better-paying jobs. So it is there, and it should be there because unemployment is so high and there is a huge need. In his State of the Union Address, President Obama said: ``Jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010.'' Here in the Senate, a group of us have been working on finding the best way to create new jobs. I am pleased to have worked together across the aisle with a thoughtful bipartisan group of Senators to craft legislation to create tax incentives for job creation. I applaud my colleagues, Senators Schumer and Hatch, for working together to bring good ideas to the table. I thank my very good friend, Chuck Grassley, for working with us once again, and I appreciate the tremendous help from Senators Dorgan, Casey, and Durbin who have been spearheading the broader jobs effort. Some of the provisions on which these Senators have worked are before us today.…





