Political Quotes

“last month's New York Times predicted that if there is to be an economic recovery in our future, it will be a ``jobless recovery.'' I would submit that for the 8.2 million Americans who are unemployed, an economic recovery that does not provide more jobs is no recovery at all. And of course, as consumer confidence plunged to a nine year low in October, any economic recovery--with or without more job openings--seems strongly in doubt. For this reason, H.R. 5063's plan to extend the Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program, which is presently scheduled to expire on December 28, 2002, is woefully inadequate and provides an extremely limited amount of additional unemployment relief. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, between now and February 2, 2003, 1.8 million jobless workers in need of assistance would fail to receive it under this plan. Only three states, Arkansas, Oregon, and Washington, are eligible for the five-week extension of the TEUC program authorized by this bill.”