[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18298]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  (Mr. BISHOP of New York asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Madam Speaker, starting tomorrow, 31,000 of 
my constituents, 400,000 New Yorkers and 2 million Americans will begin 
to lose their unemployment benefits. Before Thanksgiving, 143 
Republicans and 11 Democrats voted against extending unemployment 
insurance. With that vote they said the unemployed mother, or the 
husband who lost his job to outsourcing are the ones who should 
shoulder the burden of reducing the national debt.
  In the same breath, Republicans call on Congress to pass a tax break 
for the wealthiest Americans--adding hundreds of billions of dollars to 
the deficit. Republicans say we can't afford unemployment benefits, but 
they are alone in their logic. Economists widely agree that extending 
unemployment benefits does far more to stimulate economic growth than 
tax breaks for millionaires.
  Madam Speaker, as we enter the winter season when home heating, gas 
and other basic living costs will rise, I ask my colleagues to help 
those American families who are most in need, not those wealthiest who 
need it the least.

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