[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5800-5801]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ECONOMIC REALITY

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we have heard all these glowing figures 
from the other side of the aisle about this economy. I want to give a 
little dose of reality.
  Today the unemployment insurance extension runs out. This Senate 
refused to act. I don't know how many times Senator Cantwell has made 
that unanimous consent request.
  In my State, it is estimated if unemployment benefits are not 
extended, 314,344 workers will lose benefits in the first 6 months of 
the year. This is outrageous.
  This is the first time I can ever remember where a political party in 
charge could care less about people who are unemployed. Look at the 
record here. This is real. Let's go back to the Hoover administration, 
when there was a decrease in job creation.

[[Page 5801]]

During every other administration--Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, 
Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton--private sector 
employment increased.
  Not now. Here we are at a moment when people are running out of their 
unemployment extension. I will read you a letter written by Kathleen 
Fontana of Scotts Valley, CA:

       Dear Members of Congress: I am a single parent of two 
     teenage boys and unemployed and unable to apply for the 
     extension of UI. I was laid off July 2, 2003 . . . after 38 
     years with TWA. Needless to say, I am 60 years old, having 
     been forced to live off my home equity loan in order to make 
     ends meet. The unemployment extension needs to be passed and 
     reinstated for us American citizens that are having these 
     financial difficulties in the career area. More jobs are 
     leaving the U.S. and more money is leaving here, too. Iraq is 
     only one example. Things need to change and people at home 
     need help too. . . . We need your votes to change this and 
     have the extension of UI benefits.

  As I go around my State--and I have been doing that a lot--the basic 
theme I am hearing is this: Senator, it is time for this country; it is 
time for America; it is time to think about our people and our workers.
  I could not even believe it. I went into farm country and the rice 
farmers there who are sending their sons and daughters off to war--the 
contracts for rice are for the people of Iraq; they went out of the 
country. This is taxpayer dollars, American taxpayer dollars. Instead 
of saying, OK, we are going to rebuild Iraq and do it with American 
business and farmers, oh, no, we could not do that. Our State 
Department would not like that.
  I am here to tell you there is something brewing in the countryside. 
People are angry about the fact that they seem to be last in line.
  Let's look at some of these job loss numbers since this President 
came into power. Under Ronald Reagan, we had 165,000 jobs created per 
month. That was terrific. He was a beloved President. Under George H.W. 
Bush, 47,604 jobs were created a month. That was not very good. Under 
Bill Clinton, there was an extraordinary leap, to 236,625 jobs created 
per month. That is why kids got lifted out of poverty.
  I saw a chart Senator Santorum had and it is beautiful. It shows how 
the African-American children are seeing poverty decline--up until last 
year. It is because during the Clinton administration we did welfare 
reform and we had a great economy. Then under George W. Bush, 58,815 
jobs have been lost per month. It is a pathetic situation. If you 
translate that to my State, what we see in this situation is, again 
what has happened here and why we have to at least, A, be compassionate 
to the people who need extended unemployment benefits; B, we need to 
raise the minimum wage; C, we need to kill this administration's crazy 
idea to take overtime away from hard-working people.
  Let's get this country back on track. It should be time for America.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island is 
recognized.

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