Political Quotes

“America's workforce is facing immense challenges. Our country has lost 230,000 jobs in the first 3 months of 2008. Many of those jobs are in the Presiding Officer's State of Michigan and my State of Ohio. The national unemployment rate has gone to 5.1 percent. In Ohio, unemployment hovers around 6 percent. Early this year, Congress passed an economic stimulus package--a necessary step but only a small step and a first step. Wall Street projects an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent by the end of 2009. It will likely be higher in my State. We have not acted on extending unemployment insurance. The Republicans filibustered extending unemployment insurance when we passed the stimulus package earlier this year. The Republicans again have stopped our efforts and have refused to extend unemployment benefits. Over 2.6 million Americans--35 percent of all unemployed workers-- have already exhausted their unemployment benefits over the past 12 months. These are people who want to work, who have tried to find other jobs, who simply have been unsuccessful in finding decent jobs. Workers have paid into the unemployment system for years and deserve protection now. Again, these are workers who have paid into this fund. This is an insurance fund. It is not a welfare fund. These workers deserve the compensation to help during their difficult times as they search for jobs. I urge my colleagues to end their filibuster and to work on extending unemployment insurance.”