[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S190-S191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. For months the Democrats who run Washington have been 
desperate to distract from the pain of ObamaCare. If we listen to them, 
they think they have found something that might work for them.
  The one thing that can actually distract folks from the misery of 
this law is the misery of the economic malaise they have presided over 
for the past 5 years. We truly have to hand it to them in one respect. 
It takes a lot of chutzpah to spend an entire Presidential term pushing 
policies that are supposedly meant to help the little guy and then turn 
around and blame everybody else when they flop.
  But chutzpah won't solve the problem, and the poll-tested talking 
points and failed stimulus ideas we have seen Democrats trot out thus 
far won't do much to improve the plight of millions of Americans 
struggling in today's economy.
  To me that is the real tragedy, because the discussion about how to 
help Americans battle against the odds day after day is a conversation 
we actually should be having. In fact, it is a debate Republicans are 
having. In recent days we have seen several leading Republicans talk 
about how to tackle poverty in the 21st century.
  Unlike the Democrats' outdated ideas from the sixties, Republicans 
are thinking about ways to update our Nation's approach with fresh 
proposals that speak to the situation Americans actually find 
themselves in today, not back in the sixties.
  The Republican approach is to learn from past mistakes. It is about 
turning the left's good intentions into policies that can actually get 
the job done, and it is about moving beyond the treatment of symptoms 
and getting at the underlying problems.
  That is the thinking behind the Economic Freedom Zones Act, which 
Senator Paul and I recently introduced. It aims to shine a light into 
some of the most impoverished corners of our country, to raise up 
cities and families who have been left behind and sometimes literally 
crushed by the outdated ideas from the sixties and to actually do that 
in a way that lasts.
  With this legislation, some of the most disadvantaged areas of our 
country would acquire the ability to apply for economic freedom zone 
status that would help lift the burden of some of the poorest families 
in our country. Small business owners would see fewer government 
regulations, enabling them to create jobs and drive prosperity. 
Entrepreneurs would see punitive tax barriers peeled back, allowing 
them to lead a recovery with new ideas and new energy. Failed 
educational systems would see reforms that lift up disadvantaged 
children, giving new hope to a younger generation. Cities and regions 
that now face a dark future could transform themselves, if they chose, 
almost instantly into magnets for new ideas and for new hope.
  If our Democratic colleagues are serious about their focus on 
economic distress--if it is more than only some poll-tested ObamaCare 
distraction--then I would invite them to work with us on innovative new 
approaches such as this.
  This could allow the Senate, for instance, to consider our proposal 
as an amendment to the unemployment insurance legislation currently on 
the floor, because this is a discussion that needs to be about helping 
people. These economic freedom zones are similar in some ways to the 
Promise Zone initiative recently developed by the Obama administration.
  I was pleased to hear that eight counties in eastern Kentucky will 
soon receive Promise Zone designation. That is why I wrote in support 
of granting this designation last year, because there is no doubt that 
eastern Kentucky is a region that has suffered enormous hardship in 
recent years--much of it, unfortunately, related to the very same Obama 
administration war on coal families. But the promise zone designation 
is a step in the right direction nonetheless. Senator Paul and I will 
be heading to the White House later today for a promise zone event 
because we are encouraged the President is finally--finally--focused on 
a concrete approach to jobs that Members of both parties can support, 
proving that we can accomplish things when we focus on real efforts 
rather than political show votes that are designed to fail.

  Promise zones are something we can build on with far more 
comprehensive approaches, such as Senator Paul's economic freedom zones 
that would reach even more communities in need

[[Page S191]]

of revitalization. Because let's remember this: Government programs can 
sometimes help, but they can't do everything. The 1960s mindset about 
how to fight poverty needs to change to fit the realities of the 21st 
century.
  I want to share a sentiment I read yesterday from Thomas Vincent, an 
unemployed coal worker from the very Kentucky county where LBJ launched 
his big-government blitz 50 years ago. This was his take on the so-
called ``war on poverty:'' What good are all these government programs 
if they do not get you a job? It is a feeling, the article noted, that 
is widespread among his neighbors in Martin County.
  This is why Republicans say it is time for modernization and new 
approaches. It is time to give folks such as Thomas real hope. It is 
time to give them more than just good intentions.

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