[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 13, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5770-S5771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam President, it is, I believe, day 42 since 41
Members of the Senate have blocked us through filibuster, through
obstructionism, through threat of tying up the Senate and shutting it
down basically so that we have not been able to extend unemployment
benefits to workers in Charlotte, in Ashville, NC, and Columbus and
Cleveland, OH. It is unconscionable. It is unfair to those workers who
have worked for 20 years and lost their jobs through no doing of their
own. It is bad economics.
Presidential candidate McCain's economic adviser, Mark Zandi, during
the Presidential campaign said every dollar of unemployment benefits
generates $1.60 in economic growth. He examined various kinds of
expenditures--everything from tax cuts to a whole bunch of other
government programs--and what would stimulate the economy best, from
road construction to small business tax breaks, all the kinds of things
that we could do for job growth.
He said--this is Republican John McCain who voted against
unemployment extension--his economic adviser in the Presidential race
said the best stimulus for the economy is unemployment benefits because
every dollar that goes into the pocket of an unemployed worker in Lima,
Gallipolis, Steubenville, or Miamisburg, OH, generates $1.60 in
economic activity. That means they spend that dollar quickly because
they need that money to pay their rent, to pay for utilities, to buy
groceries, to go to the drugstore--to do all the things that are
necessities of life that are obviously so important.
As the Akron Beacon Journal analyzed, Summit County emergency cash
assistance cases rose 27 percent from May 2009 to May 2010. Food stamp
cases climbed 22 percent over the same period.
It is an economic equation, to be sure, that extending unemployment
benefits is the best thing for our economy. It is also a human
equation, for all the problems people face in our country of not being
able to simply provide for their families.
We can talk about the statistics; 90,000 Ohioans have seen their
unemployment benefits expire. Forty-one Members of this body--40 of
them Republicans--have said no to extending these benefits. We know
these numbers. We see them all the time. We are blinded sometimes by
all the statistics.
I would like to, as I do many days, put a human face on this issue
and share what people in my State write to me telling me what these
unemployment benefits mean to them.
Lisa from Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland area:
Please do not strand us here on the sea of uncertainty and
washed up on the shore of ruin. That statement may be
dramatic, but that is how it feels out here.
In my case, if I was guaranteed a 40 hour a week job
working at a fast food restaurant, I would take it in a
heartbeat.
I am currently taking care of my elderly mother college age
daughter on $213 a week after taxes. Do you know how far that
goes? I have to pay rent, electric bills, and put food on the
table. I am a single mother. How am I supposed to live?
I sit in a bedroom away from my mother and daughter and cry
because I feel I have failed by family and we are headed for
ruin. We already lost the family home due to unscrupulous
lenders. Now I am one rent check away from being homeless.
Please, I am begging you to be my voice and the voice of
the unemployed in Washington.
Again, these are people who want to work. Some of my colleagues, some
of the 41 who vote no consistently--we have tried week after week to
bring this legislation to a vote--seem to think unemployment is
welfare. It is not welfare. Many of the letters I get are from people
who worked in the same job 20 and 30 years and lost that job and are
trying to find work, as they are required to under the law. If you draw
unemployment benefits, you are required to continue to look for work.
You send out resumes, make visits to the plant, the office, or
restaurant to try to get a job.
Every one of these workers paid in. This is not welfare; this is
insurance. Every one of these workers paid into the unemployment
insurance fund, and now when they are unemployed, they are deserving of
collecting on their insurance, if you will.
[[Page S5771]]
Rebecca from Lorain County--that is the county in which I live in
west Cleveland--works for Catholic Charities helping the unemployed:
My job is trying to find resources for the people in need.
Every day I am deluged with requests for rental and mortgage
assistance by many who have exhausted their unemployment
benefits and have not been able to find other employment.
One gentleman in particular is an unemployed steelworker of
over 25 years who is raising a 2-year-old son by himself. His
home is about to be foreclosed on and his employment benefits
have run out. What else can he do? What can I do to assist
him?
I look across the aisle when we are all in this Chamber and I think:
41 people voted against the extension of unemployment benefits. I think
all of us are a bit too isolated in this job. We are paid well. We get
a lot of attention. We all have good staffs, fairly large staffs of 40,
50, 60 people both in Washington and our States, in Columbus,
Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Lorain. I don't know that we talk with
enough people who have been in a situation that she writes about the
steelworker--25 years and raising a 2-year-old son by himself.
Lisa from Cuyahoga County is taking care of her elderly mother and
college-age daughter and already lost her home. I know empathy is in
short supply in this world and particularly in the Senate. I wish each
of us would read these letters and sit down and talk with somebody such
as Lisa who first lost her job. Then she lost her health care. Then she
has to explain to her daughter: Honey, we are not going to be able to
stay in this house much longer because we cannot afford the rent--or
got foreclosed.
Mom, where are we going to live?
I don't know yet.
Am I going to be able to go to the same grade school I go to now?
I don't know yet, honey, if that is going to happen.
How are we going to move? How are we going to move our stuff?
I don't know. We have to figure that out.
These are questions people such as us do not have to answer very
often, are not faced with. If my 41 colleagues would sit down and
listen to people who deal with these problems, who experience these
problems, it might be a different situation.
The last letter I will read is from Marjorie from Summit County. That
is in the Akron area:
I have been unemployed since January. My husband lost his
job shortly before that. We are both college graduates. My
husband has a master's degree.
Since we are both 61 years of age, employers are not hiring
us because we are not the right fit for the position because
we are either overqualified and/or too old.
Our house is on the market because we are reaching a point
where we will be unable to make mortgage payments.
We have always done the right thing raising our children
and being responsible citizens. But now we can't even keep a
roof over our heads.
Something is not right when people make generalizations--as
they are doing now--about people like us who want to work,
who want to take care of themselves, and who are tired of
being shunned because we are ``one of those people.''
We do not like the deficit growth, but we paid our taxes,
and we did not create this recession.
Please share our story with those who are in a position to,
at least, help us with something.
I don't know Marjorie, but I received this letter from her. I know
from every indication that she and her husband have worked their whole
lives. They are highly educated. Both have college degrees. One has a
master's degree. They are not people who are unmotivated. They have
lived in this house a long time. They do not want to sell their house,
but they do not have much choice.
Why can't 60 of us, with these sometimes dysfunctional Senate rules,
with just one person from the other side of the aisle, one Republican,
join in voting, or a couple of them come over here and vote for this
extension so we can get the 60 votes we need? They are only going to
get $300 a week in unemployment benefits. Most of these people have
paid into these funds for 10, 20, 30 years, never collecting anything.
But they are only going to get $300 a week.
They are not going to be rich. It is not so much money that they will
think: I don't want to bother going to work. I don't want to keep
looking for a job. They have to keep looking for a job.
It is the right thing to do morally. It is the right thing to do
because of the values we hold dear in this country. It is the right
thing to do for economic reasons. As Senator McCain's chief economic
adviser in his Presidential race said: Nothing stimulates the economy
more than putting this money into the community in Ravenna or Mansfield
or Warren or Findlay and getting this generation of economic activity
which will help to create more jobs and help to get us out of this
recession.
I implore again my colleagues to support the extension of
unemployment benefits.
Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a
quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BURRIS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BURRIS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in
morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BURRIS. Madam President, we are on the small business bill; is
that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is still conducting morning
business.
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