[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 14, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS ARE GREATLY NEEDED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Miller) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, 4 months ago as a brand-
new Member of this House, I stood with two of my Democratic colleagues 
from North Carolina at the Employment Security Commission office in 
Raleigh. And together we called on Congress to extend unemployment 
benefits for an additional 26 weeks. At that time there were more than 
37,000 workers who had already exhausted their unemployment benefits in 
North Carolina and nationally a million workers were without benefits, 
out of a job, out of money and because of the inaction of this House, 
out of luck.
  Despite my plea and the plea of other Democrats to extend the 
benefits through a compromise plan that the Senate passed unanimously, 
the House leadership allowed the benefits to expire and allowed 1 
million Americans and their families to go without benefits. And there 
was never an explanation for why this House could not trouble itself to 
act quickly, to act in time to give that extension. A few days later 
this House did act and extended benefits. It was not 26 weeks. It was 
13. Again, no explanation for why we could not act in time.
  Here we are again. With a deadline quickly approaching, the 
Republican leadership is again doing nothing to extend those benefits.
  On May 31, just a couple of weeks, this House will let unemployment 
benefits expire again; but this time the impact will be far greater. 
Now there are 2.1 million workers who will be left without unemployment 
benefits. Twice as many in January, twice as many mothers and fathers, 
twice as many breadwinners, twice as many out-of-luck Americans.
  The economy has lost more than half a million additional jobs since 
January. Since the recession began 2 years ago, the economy has lost 
2.7 million jobs in the private sector. The persistence of job loss at 
this 2-year mark in this recession is the worst since the Great 
Depression. The unemployment rate is now 6 percent, and there are 8.8 
million unemployed Americans. But again House Republicans are doing 
nothing to protect out-of-work Americans and their families.
  The Republican leadership has found the time to do plenty for 
America's richest. The Republicans rammed the President's tax bill 
through last week. If you listen to the Republicans speak in favor of 
that bill, you would have thought you flipped from C-SPAN to the 
History Channel. You would have thought you had gone back in time and 
you were seeing House debates during the Great Depression or the Works 
Progress Administration or the Civilian Conservation Corps, because 
every Republican spoke entirely of creation of jobs. Only in passing 
and only occasionally were Republicans speaking for the bill mentioned 
that what the bill did was eliminate dividends, the taxation on 
individuals of dividend, dividend income.
  As the gentleman pointed out just a short while ago, we have heard 
strained arguments before for how tax cuts solve a wide variety of 
problems. The Republicans say that tax cuts to the rich are the 
solution for everything from urban sprawl to tooth decay. Last week it 
was the creation of jobs and economic stimulus. But the proposed 
economic stimulus bill, or the bill described last week as an economic 
stimulus bill, does little, precious little, to stimulate the economy.
  They said that we need to cut taxes on the richest Americans so that 
we can create what economists call the wealth effect; that the richest 
Americans need to feel so secure in their financial circumstances that 
they then will not feel inclined to save the money, but they will spend 
it; and that will stimulate the economy.

                              {time}  1730

  The unemployed may not feel rich, may not feel wealthy from getting 
an extension of their unemployment benefits, but believe me, they will 
spend it. I call it the got-to-pay-the-bills effect. They will spend 
the money. They will spend it on their rent. They will spend it on 
food. They will spend it on health care costs. They will spend the 
money. Do not worry.
  I do not favor, Mr. Speaker, an indefinite extension of unemployment 
benefits, but I do not believe, as apparently the majority in this 
Chamber do believe, that the majority of those who would be helped by 
the extension of unemployment benefits would prefer not to be working. 
If my colleagues think the unemployed are not looking for jobs because 
unemployment benefits allows them a tax-paid holiday, I invite my 
colleagues to come with me to Rockingham County. I would like to 
introduce them to unemployed textile workers who do not know when they 
will again find a job. They do not where to look for a job. I would 
like to see my colleagues say to their face that we need to light a 
fire under them so they will look for a job, and then, unless we end 
their unemployment benefits, they will not look, they will not go and 
find a job to support themselves and for their families.
  I am proud to be here with many of my colleagues today, the first-
term members on the Democratic side, calling for an extension of those 
benefits.

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