[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 84 (Monday, June 7, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4608-S4610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. All of us have just come back to the Senate after 
a Memorial Day work period, where most of us were traveling our States, 
meeting with people. I was in Toledo, Youngstown, Cleveland, and around 
much of my State.
  While we have seen signs of recovery in Youngstown, in part because 
of the Recovery Act, in part because of where those dollars were 
absolutely well spent on infrastructure, making this expansion 
possible, in part because of a

[[Page S4609]]

trade decision the President of the United States made on the dumping 
of Chinese steel. In real terms--in real English--the dumping of 
Chinese steel meant the Chinese were cheating. Now we have restored 
competitiveness to the market so that American companies, with very 
productive American workers, can make steel and sell that steel at 
competitive prices.
  We have seen an announced expansion and beginning of hiring in the 
auto industry, into the whole supply chain that leads into the 
automotive industry that makes the components--the so-called Tier I and 
Tier II suppliers. We have seen those signs of recovery. But if you are 
not working or your cousin is not working or your wife has lost her job 
or your sister or brother isn't working, you know there are still too 
many people who are hurting. We have not recovered, and we are not 
close to it, but we are making progress, while those families continue 
to struggle.
  Too many Americans are waiting for us to act and extend the 
unemployment insurance they earned and the COBRA insurance they need 
while they look for work. Let me talk about unemployment insurance for 
a moment. It is not a vacation. It is not a whole lot of money people 
get. It is people who have lost their jobs and are looking for work. 
They have to continue to look for work. They have to show the 
employment bureau in their States--in new Hampshire, Ohio, wherever--
that they are continuing to look for work.
  Unemployment insurance is insurance. It is not welfare. You pay in 
when you are working and you get some help when you are not working. 
Because of the persistent unemployment caused by several years of bad 
economic policy, tax cuts for the rich, deregulation of Wall Street, a 
war that was not paid for--all the things that happened in the last 
decade which led us to this terrible economy--we have to help those 
workers who have lost their job through no fault of their own.
  We have to help pay for COBRA; that is, helping to keep their health 
insurance. It is more expensive than a mortgage for most people. How 
COBRA works is, if you lose your job, you can keep your insurance if 
you pay for your side of the insurance--the employee's side--and you 
pay for the employer's contribution to your insurance. You have to pay 
both. That is clearly expensive. If you lost your job, how would you do 
that? You are going to be able to do that because of the Recovery Act.
  The Congress and the President made a decision--with very few 
Republicans voting for it, for whatever reason. They do not think these 
people who are trying to keep their health insurance should be able to 
get help. But we were able to provide enough subsidy so that in my 
State tens of thousands of people--and I have met several dozen of 
them--have been able to keep their health insurance as a result.
  A laid-off mechanic, factory worker, electrician, engineer--ask them 
how it feels to be out of a job. When I see my colleagues voting 
against unemployment benefits, the question I really want to ask is, Do 
you know anybody who lost their job? Do you know anybody who really 
needs this unemployment insurance? Have you really talked to somebody 
who lost their health insurance and, with a little bit of help, could 
continue to keep their insurance through COBRA? Ask people in Ohio. Ask 
somebody in Dayton who has lost a job in the auto industry. Ask 
somebody in Chillicote who lost their job at a paper company. Ask 
somebody in Springfield who lost their job at DHL, the cargo company--
how they live with the stress of job loss, compounded by the small 
number of job openings, if they exist at all, in or around their 
communities.
  Unemployment insurance, as I said, is just that--it is insurance. 
Workers pay into an insurance fund while they are working. They have a 
safety net if they are unemployed, and there are requirements. Those 
collecting unemployment checks are required to actively seek work.
  I know people in my State. They come up to me when I do a townhall or 
roundtable meeting. Whether I am in Galion or Lima or St. Clairsville 
or Zanesville, people come up to me and say they send out 10 or 20 or 
30 resumes a week. Most of these resumes are not even answered because 
the economy is far from fully recovered. We are making progress. We are 
on track to recovery. We are not there yet. People are still out of 
work in huge numbers.
  I hear lectures from those who believe emergency spending should not 
be used to help out-of-work Americans who lose their unemployment 
insurance. Yet many people in this body have no problem giving away--
extending tax credits, tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, 
subsidizing the insurance companies, the drug companies, in the name of 
Medicare privatization, voting for a war. None of that was paid for. I 
didn't hear my Republican colleagues saying: We can't do that; it is 
going to add to the deficit. We can't go to war. We can't raise taxes 
to pay for the war; it is going to contribute to the deficit.
  They will vote for the Medicare privatization bill President Bush 
had--a giveaway to the drug insurance companies. They didn't say: How 
do you pay for it? They didn't say that. They didn't say we couldn't do 
those things. It is only when it is unemployment insurance and COBRA, 
things extending health insurance to people--it is only those things, 
and all of a sudden they are all concerned about the budget deficit.
  I am concerned about the budget deficit too. One of the reasons I 
voted against the Medicare giveaway to the drug insurance companies was 
because of the deficit. One of the reasons I voted against the Iraq 
war--the primary reason was it was the wrong thing to do, but I was 
very concerned about the fact that we were not paying for it.
  The tax cuts that went to the richest Americans--I didn't hear any 
Republicans saying we should not do this, with the exception of George 
Voinovich from my State, who raised that issue. I didn't hear any of 
them say we should not give those benefits because they are not paid 
for. Now that it is unemployed workers, people who have lost their 
insurance, all of a sudden they have some kind of deficit reduction 
issue in their minds. Lavishing goodies on the drug and insurance 
companies I guess does not qualify. That qualifies as emergency 
spending. That is OK. But helping working families stay afloat in a 
floundering economy is not OK.
  Every day that people do not receive their unemployment insurance is 
another day more American workers and families will slip into poverty. 
Do you know what happens if they can't get their unemployment checks, 
if they are cut, if they no longer get unemployment insurance? We are 
going to see more home foreclosures. How are you going to have economic 
recovery when somebody's home is foreclosed on, it is then vandalized, 
it then plummets in value, then infects houses in the neighborhood, and 
so they have the same problems and the value of their home gets lower 
and lower. How is that going to help us with economic recovery? It is a 
human tragedy, and it is an economic blow our country cannot afford. 
Poverty reduces consumer spending, and it increases the need for public 
assistance. That is two steps back.
  Not only is unemployment insurance a poverty prevention tool, it is a 
proven economic stimulus. Senator McCain, who ran, as we know, as 
Republican nominee for President--his chief economic adviser said 
unemployment insurance is the single best economic stimulus. Every 
dollar in jobless benefits, which were earned, as I said--you pay in as 
insurance, you get out--every dollar in unemployment benefits produces 
$1.64 in economic growth. Why is that? It is because they don't take 
their dollar and put it in their pocket; they spend it on their kids or 
spend it on the necessities of life. It goes right back into the 
community. That is why it supports and produces $1.64 in economic 
growth.
  In the first 6 months following passage of the Recovery Act--and we 
know that almost every economist, except for those who have their own 
ideological game going, will say that without the Recovery Act we would 
be in a much higher unemployment situation today. Frankly, we would 
have a higher budget deficit as a result because so many more people 
would be out of work. Unemployment insurance pumped $19 billion into 
the economy.
  Let me close with a couple of letters from Ohioans. Richard from 
Cuyahoga County--the northern part of the State

[[Page S4610]]

on Lake Erie, just east of where I live--writes:

       People like me are trying hard to find a job but this 
     economy is presenting challenges for unemployed workers. To 
     those who object to the cost of unemployment insurance--what 
     about the cost of not helping the folks looking for a job and 
     trying to get by? Not helping us means the loss of a strong 
     multiplier effect--

  This guy obviously gets it--

     spending on necessities like mortgage and rent and food and 
     car payments, which stays in the community where we live.

  That is exactly right. It is another one of the things government 
does sometimes. When you help one person, you are helping society. Look 
back at what happened in the 1940s when Franklin Roosevelt signed the 
GI bill. About 7 million, I believe, veterans used GI benefits. So 
those 7 million people were helped personally, one at a time. They got 
health care benefits, they got education benefits, they bought homes--
whatever. But the GI bill didn't just help those millions of veterans. 
It created a prosperity like none the world has ever seen, postwar 
America, where everyone was lifted up. All of society was more 
prosperous because of this government program that helped one person at 
a time.
  So is unemployment insurance. When you do unemployment insurance, you 
send a life preserver, if you will, to those individuals, tens of 
thousands in my State. But you also create prosperity so your next-door 
neighbor does better because the guy down the street is getting 
unemployment insurance because he might work at the hardware store or 
might work in the grocery store where the laid-off worker goes to shop 
for her food. He is able to keep a job because there is some prosperity 
created.
  The last letter I would like to share for a moment is from David from 
Franklin county.

       Many people like me who are looking for a job are well 
     educated, white collar workers with long work histories. As 
     we continue to look for jobs, we hope businesses will hire 
     again. Unemployment insurance benefits have been a lifeline. 
     I have been able to pay my mortgage, feed my family, and 
     clothe my children. Without these benefits--

  This is really key--

     I will lose my home, be forced to go on welfare, and see my 
     children go hungry and my family possibly destroyed. Please 
     urge your colleagues to support an unemployment insurance 
     extension. In the richest, most productive country in the 
     world, please do the right thing and stand up for us during 
     our time of need.

  Forget about the statistics, forget about the economics of it. Think 
about somebody like David who knows that without these unemployment 
benefits--and he is not getting rich; he is barely getting along with a 
few hundred dollars. What it means is he can pay his mortgage. What it 
means is he can feed his family. What it means is he will go back, as 
he keeps looking for work, to being a productive member of society.
  We need to act now--not tomorrow, not next week, not next month--now. 
We must act now.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________