Political Quotes

“I am pleased, though frustrated, like my colleagues, to be here this morning on the floor to talk about the critical need to extend unemployment insurance. Across the Nation, there are almost 15 million Americans who are out of work, and although we are making progress on our unemployment rate, it is still too high at 9.5 percent. We need to extend unemployment insurance, and we need to do it now, today, before one more family is put on the street and before one more child goes to bed hungry. This legislation is every bit as important to our economy as it is to those who are struggling to get by. Nearly 7 million people, or half of all Americans collecting unemployment insurance, have been out of work for 6 months or longer. They have run out of the insurance that is provided by their State. These are the workers who will collect this Federal unemployment extension, which they are using, as my colleagues have said--the Senator from Ohio, with his letters, was eloquent as he reported on the people from Ohio who are talking about why they need this to pay their rent, to make mortgage payments, to buy groceries, and to put gas in their cars to go out and look for their next job. As the Senator said so eloquently, sometimes the real people whom this legislation affects are forgotten during this debate.”