Max Baucus: “last week I had the opportunity to see Charles Dickens' classic ``A Christmas Carol.'' As my colleagues know, this is a…”

“last week I had the opportunity to see Charles Dickens' classic ``A Christmas Carol.'' As my colleagues know, this is a morality tale that highlights the plight of the poor, the less fortunate, and the unemployed. In fact, when Charles Dickens began to work on ``A Christmas Carol,'' he was so upset with the plight of youth and children working in the mines in England, he started out to write about that in a novel that evolved into a tale about Christmas, ``A Christmas Carol.'' As I watched ``A Christmas Carol'' with my wife in Ford's Theater about a week ago, I was struck by the following line from the spirit of Jacob Marley. Here is what he said: Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, was all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business. With that line, Dickens was advocating for those less fortunate and voicing his support for economic equality. Those words are most appropriate today at this time of year. I come to the floor today with my friend, the Senator from Rhode Island Jack Reed to share our concerns about the weak labor market, those who have been unemployed for so long, and its impact on the Nation's 11 million unemployed. Senator Reed and I are especially concerned about those who have been without work for an extended period of time.…”