Political Quotes

“Thank you very much for recognizing me. And thank you, Congresswoman Fudge, for bringing this issue to the attention of the country. We certainly need to be talking about it, and I appreciate bringing the Nevada perspective to the discussion. Extending these unemployment benefits is critical to the constituents in southern Nevada. I represent the most populous district in the country. There are 1 million people in the district compared to about 650,000 in most districts. We also have the highest unemployment rate in the country and the highest foreclosure rate, so it's a lot of people with a lot of problems. And we just heard today some rather dismal news that that rate is continuing to climb. Now the unemployment rate in southern Nevada is over 14 percent--it's probably higher than that, that's the official figure, and if you look at construction unemployment, I'm sure it's at least double that. Our recovery lags behind the rest of the country because you have to have a job with money in your pocket in Iowa and Georgia and Vermont in order to be able to come to Las Vegas for a holiday. The two economic main drivers in my State are tourism and construction, and they have been the hardest hit sectors during this recession. The fact is, many of these jobs are not going to come back right away. We know that already 38,000 people in Nevada have lost their benefits because of this Republican obstructionism that we've been talking about.…”