Political Quotes

“in February of this year, there was bipartisan conversation about what is the next step dealing with COVID. We knew we were coming out of it. Vaccines were going in arms. States were opening up. My State in Oklahoma was rapidly opening in February, and there was this dialogue about what would happen in the economy. Unfortunately, in the middle of that dialogue, my Democratic colleagues determined: We were going to go this on our own. We still stay engaged. One of the big issues, though, was unemployment. Would there be additional unemployment benefits that would be done? Now, myself and multiple others raised the issue on both sides of the aisle: How would this be handled? If it was a year before--literally, in March of 2020, there was an extension of unemployment because unemployment was at 15 percent at that point, and there were no jobs to be had. But in March of this year, when the agreement was finally made and a straight partisan bill was passed, we weren't at 15 percent unemployment. It was at 6 percent and driving down to the floor. Now we are below 4 percent. The challenge that we have is, there is additional unemployment benefits that have extended all the way until September. Now, that bill passed--a straight partisan bill--in March. By the Sunday after Palm Sunday, when I was back in my State, I was already having businessowners catching me and saying: What in the world?…”