we will learn a lot this week about who wants to fix problems and who wants to make excuses. This week will be the seventh week the emergency unemployment insurance bill has been on the Senate floor. It is another week the good families in Nevada and across the country have to struggle to make ends meet after their benefits have expired--to simply cover the basics while they look for full-time work. If my friends on the other side of the aisle have their way, this week will be yet another week with no lifeline for the most needy-- those willing to work and who are waiting to work. The other side has slowed and stalled almost every piece of legislation this year, just as they did last year and the year before. And that is not a secret. The numbers don't lie and the Republicans make no efforts to hide their strategy of delay. That is why today they are known as the party of no. But that strategy has consequences. The first is unemployment insurance. Years of disastrous Republican policies led to the worst economic disaster in generations. That, in turn, led to layoffs in nearly every industry in every State. When millions of Americans lost their jobs, they lost their incomes, their homes, their savings, their gas money, their tuition payments, all through no fault of their own. Democrats aren't about to turn their backs on out-of-work Americans, which is why we are trying to help them keep their heads above water in this emergency.
Editor's note · Context
The speaker addresses the ongoing emergency unemployment insurance bill and the impact of political delays on struggling families.
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