Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk briefly on a topic that has come up numerous times already this morning. I just attended a meeting of the Small Business Committee in which we had an extensive discussion as well. If you remember back when the CARES package was moving through Congress, there were a number of legislators who identified that an issue was being created that didn't need to necessarily be created, and that was additional dollars being set aside for those who would find themselves unemployed. As a former State legislator in Wisconsin, I had kind of gone through a process back in 2008 and 2009, which basically was an unemployment insurance fund--and I would underscore the idea insurance--that was in the red. It was as a result of the number of unemployment claims that were being made in my State. There was a nonpartisan commission that had been created to kind of oversee this process, without getting too far into the details. It had worked, where there had been some give and take. Employers and those who represented employers knew that there would be X amount of dollars taken out of everyone's payroll that would supplement or pay for the premiums associated with unemployment, and the system worked. But when the uptick came as a result of the economy sputtering at the time, it went into the red. It is just a reminder, I think, of what we find ourselves kind of in the midst of right now. As I said, some earlier speakers referenced this.…”