Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we have heard a lot of revisionist history this afternoon. Look back in March, when Congress did the right thing and the Senate voted unanimously. Because of our efforts, 13 million people were kept out of poverty--we know that--because we provided relatively generous unemployment insurance. We did the direct payments. We helped with small business loans. But then this Senate thought its work was done for the year. We begged Senator McConnell month after month after month to come back and help. As I said, 13 million people were kept out of poverty because of the work this Congress did in March of this year, but now, since--many of those benefits, especially the unemployment benefit and the direct payments, were not continued, of course. Those benefits expired in August, and we have seen 8 million people drop into poverty in this country since. Yet Senator McConnell refuses and refuses and refuses I hear this revisionist history that Democrats just want to help people who are already affluent and give them more money. Well, remember back in March, the only amendment that we considered, the only amendment that Senator McConnell allowed on the floor of the Senate to the CARES Act, the only amendment was to take away the $600-a-week unemployment insurance. The only place Republicans fought was the $600- a-week unemployment insurance. That more than any single thing we did is why people were kept out of poverty.…”