Political Quotes

“First, let me just say that I offer this amendment in support of the unemployed workers across the country who are truly living in a state of emergency and who desperately need our assistance like right now. This CR really reminds me of a CR that reflects survival of the fittest. Of the nearly 600 amendments to the continuing resolution that have been proposed or considered so far, this amendment is the only one, mind you, that deals with the problem of the unemployed directly. Nowhere in the proposed continuing resolution does the majority try to address the needs of the unemployed, whether to provide benefits or to help create jobs. In fact, the underlying resolution is estimated to cost more than 800,000 private and public sector jobs. The proposal before us would even cut $2.5 billion from job training programs that directly assist the unemployed in getting the skills that they need to find new jobs and get back to work. The national unemployment rate stands at 9 percent. In California, in my home State, it's 12.5 percent. In Ohio, where the Speaker is from, it's 9.6 percent. And of course, African Americans and Latinos and teenagers have far higher unemployment rates of 15.5, 11.5, and 25.7 percent respectively. Altogether, 13.9 million people are looking for work across the country, 6.2 million of them are classified as long-term unemployed, and yet the Republican response is to cut job training programs. Just think about that for a moment.…”