Maria Cantwell: “I am glad this debate has finally turned toward jobs. For the last 2 days we have been having a debate about what groups…”

“I am glad this debate has finally turned toward jobs. For the last 2 days we have been having a debate about what groups to exempt from liability. One of the groups we need to be talking about--because they have paid a heavy price for the liability of our economy--is the unemployed workers in America. Because we won't reinstate the federal unemployment benefits program, unemployed workers are being held liable for our economic recession. I am glad my colleagues are finally talking about jobs. We need to be questioning whether jobs are being created in this country. We need to ask whether we believe in the President's economic forecast for this year, in terms of the job growth he says is going to take place, or whether we don't believe those numbers and we want to do something about unemployment. The bottom line, however, is that the economy isn't going to create enough jobs to put America back to work. And since this recession started in early 2001, millions of people have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and millions are still out of work.”