[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S189-S190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION

  Mr. REID. Another day has passed and we still have a vast majority of 
Republicans standing in the way of the extension of unemployment 
benefits.
  Some Republican Senators are having conversations about possible 
offsets for a full-year extension. I have said a number of times I 
think we would be ill-advised to have another short-term extension. If 
we are going to have an extension that they are talking about paying 
for, let's do it for 1 year. We don't need to come back and worry about 
this in 3 more months.
  Let's see how they wish to pay for this. We have heard proposals. The 
proposals are, one, to stop people having health care. The other is to 
go after children, the earned-income tax credit for American boys and 
girls. It doesn't sound like a very good idea to me.
  Then we have a number of proposals suggested by another Senator late 
last night that, if we look at it, it is not worth $5 billion. It is 
worth much less than that. To do what has been suggested by one 
Republican Senator would be to devastate the disabled, and that 
wouldn't be appropriate.
  I would be interested if there are other proposals. As I have 
indicated on a number of occasions, I continue to say offsetting the 
cost of emergency unemployment benefits is not something I agree with.
  President Bush extended emergency unemployment insurance five times. 
Not one of these five times was there a whimper from my Republican 
colleagues or certainly Democratic Senators that it should be paid for. 
It wasn't right to offset the cost when President Bush was President, 
and it is not right to offset the cost now that President Obama is in 
the White House.
  We have cut the deficit in half since President Obama took office, 
and overall debt reduction has been even more transparent, almost $3 
trillion. While we must keep up our good work, we have more to do. We 
must solve the Nation's job crisis if we ever hope to solve fiscal 
problems.
  Today's long-term unemployment rate is more than double what it was 
at any time Congress let emergency job assistance expire. Since many 
Republican Senators are insisting that the cost be offset, I am pleased 
to talk, as we all are on this side of the aisle, about a long-term 
emergency extension of unemployment benefits. I repeat, I am waiting to 
hear from my Republican colleagues about how to pay for this extension.
  It has been a week since families already hanging by a thread were 
kicked off of unemployment insurance benefits. Think about this. People 
who have been out of work for month after

[[Page S190]]

month learned at the beginning of this year they wouldn't get $300 a 
week.
  Remember, this is not charity. First, they have to lose their job, 
through no fault of their own. Then they have to go out every week, 
look for a job, and have to list where they have gone.
  For every job that is available in America today, there are three 
people looking for that job. I was stunned when I had my news briefing 
this morning when one Republican Senator said: There are so many jobs 
that are unfilled in America today. Let these people go get those jobs. 
Try that one on for size.
  For many the benefits were the only thing preventing them from 
descending into poverty or even becoming homeless. Hundreds of 
thousands of children, as a result of these benefits, have been stopped 
from going into the rolls of the poor.
  These families can't wait any longer for relief. I am optimistic my 
Republican colleagues will help us find a way out of this, and put 
people first and partisanship second.
  Tuesday, House Republican leaders were forced to send a message to 
their Members reminding them these people are out of work, be 
compassionate. Then, of course, the memo came to the Senate.
  Can one imagine having to remind Senators about having compassion for 
people who have been long-term unemployed?
  Yesterday afternoon the Republican leader spoke in this Chamber for a 
long time, 45 minutes. Not once during this discussion were the words 
``jobs,'' ``the economy'' or ``unemployment'' mentioned--not once.
  Middle-class Americans are hurting. We know the rich are getting 
richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is being 
squeezed.
  During the last 30 years, the middle class has lost 10 percent of the 
earnings they had in the previous 30 years, whereas the top 1 percent 
during that same 30-year period had their income and wealth triple.
  These people who are struggling out there are working two jobs. Some 
are even trying to do it with three jobs, and some of it is part-time, 
just in an effort to get by. The rest have watched their wages shrink 
at the same time, as I have indicated, as the richest of the rich are 
doing much, much better.
  What beleaguered Americans need is not a memo on basic decency, as 
Republicans got on Tuesday, or a bitter diatribe about the rules of the 
Senate; they need solutions. For 1.3 million Americans today and 5 
million Americans over the course of this year, extending emergency 
unemployment benefits is a solution.
  Raising the minimum wage so a mother or father working two jobs can 
afford the rent and an electric bill in the same month is a solution. 
Investing in job creation and education so the workers of today can 
compete for the jobs of tomorrow is a solution. Whenever my Republican 
colleagues are prepared to stop complaining and start working with 
Democrats to create solutions, we will be here waiting.

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