Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Michigan, my chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and I simply wish to make a few comments about this afternoon's proceedings with respect to unemployment insurance. The reason we were here, and we can't lose sight of that, is that 1.3 million Americans, as of December 28, lost their extended unemployment benefits. They are without the modest support of roughly $300 to $350 a week. Every week, 73,000 more Americans lose this support. We are going to see this number grow and grow and grow and grow while we talk and talk and talk and talk. Along with Senator Heller, we proposed a very straightforward mechanism: a 90 day extension and picking up retroactively those who had lost it, unpaid for, so we could work on some of the difficult issues my colleagues have all explored this afternoon. In listening to my colleagues, we made the determination there was a sincere concern and desire on the part of my Republican colleagues particularly that any extension of benefits be paid for. Most frequently, we don't pay for these benefits. We have on occasion, but most times we consider it emergency spending. We go ahead and authorize the payments and we don't offset it. But the concern was raised repeatedly and very strenuously that these benefits should be paid for. Also, there were several proposals to do that.…”