[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 183 (Thursday, December 1, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H8009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           LIFE WITHOUT HOPE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Missouri (Mr. Cleaver) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, first, let me associate my comments with 
those of my colleague Mr. Westmoreland.
  Mr. Speaker, on each Wednesday night for probably the last 10 or 12 
years, our church has provided food for those who are struggling. Not 
long ago a gentleman came to our church, picked up food. And then later 
that night, as I was leaving the church, I ran into him at a 7-Eleven. 
You can imagine how troubled I was when I saw him buying a lottery 
ticket. I thought to myself, this guy has just ripped off the church 
and then is using his money for a lottery ticket.
  So I waited for him outside the 7-Eleven. And when he came out, I 
said to him, Look, I'm a little concerned because you picked up a sack 
of groceries, and then you just spent money on a lottery, and those two 
just don't match.
  And he said, Well, I probably shouldn't have spent the money on the 
lottery, but you know, Reverend, a man's got to have some hope.
  And while I think that hope is misplaced, the truth of the matter is 
he was absolutely correct. It is virtually impossible to live any kind 
of productive life on this planet without hope.
  There are millions of Americans who, unfortunately, cannot place 
their hope in this body. I think that I can state without fear of 
contradiction that the dysfunctionality of the United States Congress 
is helping to erase hope from the men and women in this country who are 
struggling. All of the back and forth and blaming each other has 
nothing to do with providing hope. And quite often, we allow ideology 
to trump logic.
  We decide almost every day that no matter what, I'm going to take the 
position of the Republicans or I'm going to take the position of the 
Democrats, and, as a result, we have polluted the public.
  This is one of the nastiest moments in U.S. history. Just look at 
television. Look at all of the so-called reality shows. The ones that 
are most popular are ones where people are doing things to each other 
or insulting each other; you're fired, or you've got to eat live 
spiders. That's what we are coming to.
  A perfect example of what we're doing is not addressing the expiring 
unemployment benefits. At the end of this year, almost 2 million 
Americans--they have names, they have faces, they have families--2 
million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits by mid-
February.

                              {time}  1110

  A total of over 6 million Americans will lose benefits next year 
unless this body decides to become functional. In Missouri, my home 
State, 40,400 citizens depend on unemployment benefits. Many more are 
unemployed and not receiving any help at all. In Missouri, the 
unemployment rate is almost 9 percent.
  I grew up in public housing. Yes, public housing. My father worked 
three jobs to get us out, worked three jobs to send me and my three 
sisters through college. And my mother started college when I was in 
the 8th grade. So I always resent any implication that people don't 
want to work.
  So as we move into a holiday season, a season of hope, my hope is 
that the Congress of the United States will not snatch hope from over 2 
million Americans.

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