Political Quotes

“Madam President, just to respond to the Senator from South Dakota, it has always been a bedrock argument from Senate Republicans that somehow unemployment insurance is a disincentive for people to work. If that were the case--unemployment benefits expired in July, July 31. If somehow those unemployment benefits were shackling the economy, creating disincentives to work, why wasn't there a mega boom in the workforce in August? The reason is pretty obvious: Those unemployment benefits were not a disincentive. That has been the case as well into September and October. The one thing I do want to take exception to with respect to my colleague's remarks is--he said Republicans never sought to gut the $600. That is just not accurate. On the floor, the Republicans wanted to take out that amount, which everybody was going to get, and replace it with something that was completely unworkable and wouldn't have gotten benefits to unemployed workers quickly. You don't have to take my word for it. Eugene Scalia, the Secretary of Labor, during days and days of negotiations, as we talked about the concept the Senator from South Dakota has raised, the whole notion of wage replacement, the Secretary of Labor said, can't be done. The States don't have the technology to do it.…”