Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the business we have in front of us here in the Senate, financial regulatory reform. But I did want to note that we meet in an hour of real economic trauma for many families across America and across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I know the Presiding Officer sees this as well in his home State of New Mexico. We have lots of people out of work. And although there is no question in my mind that our economy has begun to recover, and has recovered substantially, we still have a way to go. So even as we debate financial reform and the intricacies of that, it is important that we remember there are still a lot of people out of work. The latest numbers nationally are that 15 million people are without work across America, and in Pennsylvania it is 582,000 people. I was looking at the numbers for the month of March, region by region in Pennsylvania. We have 14 labor markets, the numbers of which are charted on a monthly basis. Looking at the areas of the State where it is above our unemployment rate, we have several parts of Pennsylvania where, if it is not 10 percent, it is very close to that. In Erie, PA, up in northwestern Pennsylvania, it is a 10-percentage point unemployment. I realize for some States they have been in double-digit figures for a while, but for places such as Erie, it is 10 percent. The Lehigh Valley, on the eastern side of our State, is getting close to 10. It is 9.8.…”