[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11464-11466]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I come to the floor to plead with 
our Republican colleagues to pass the extension of unemployment 
benefits. I still am amazed, as are so many Ohioans and so many 
Coloradans and people from all over the country, that all of a sudden 
my colleagues care so much about the budget deficit, when if we go back 
10 years, we had a budget surplus. Then three things happened. One was 
the war in Iraq. The Presiding Officer opposed it, as did I. But more 
than that, we went to war and didn't pay for it. We put the cost of the 
war on our children and grandchildren. There was not an outcry from 
anybody on the other side of the aisle saying we should pay for that 
war, that we should not go to war and charge it to the children and 
grandchildren.
  Around the same time, President Bush came to the Congress and asked 
for major tax cuts for the richest Americans. Again, the Presiding 
Officer and I opposed these tax cuts and

[[Page 11465]]

said, at a minimum, if we are going to give tax cuts to the richest 
Americans, we need to find a way to pay for them. There was no interest 
on that side of the aisle when they were in the majority in paying for 
the tax cuts.
  Then soon after that, President Bush came to this body and the House, 
where the Presiding Officer and I served in those days, and asked for a 
huge subsidy for the drug companies and the insurance companies in the 
name of Medicare privatization. We both opposed that, but not only did 
we oppose it because we thought it wasn't done right--it was not the 
way to provide a drug benefit to seniors--but it was not paid for 
either. There was nary an outcry on that side of the aisle.
  So when it was a $1 trillion war, tax cuts for the richest Americans, 
and subsidies for the drug and insurance companies, there was no 
interest in paying for it; just charge that to the grandchildren. But 
now that it is workers who lose jobs, people who lose their insurance, 
people who then lose their homes, there seems to be an outcry: We can't 
do this.
  Forget the statistics; forget that there are 900,000 Americans losing 
their unemployment; forget the numbers. Listen to what people say. I am 
going to read four letters from around my State. I know the Presiding 
Officer gets them from Boulder and Colorado Springs and Denver. I know 
my colleagues get them from Tallahassee and Omaha and New York, letters 
from people who played by the rules, worked hard, lost their jobs 
through no fault of their own, who keep fighting to find jobs, keep 
sending out resumes. You have to do that if you are going to receive 
unemployment. And then their unemployment insurance ran out.
  I wonder sometimes if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
who are voting no every time we try to bring this up, if they know 
anybody who lost a job, if they know anybody who lost insurance, if 
they know anybody who lost a home. I plead with them, I ask them, the 
people who have voted no, to try some empathy. Try to imagine you are a 
father or a mother and you have lost a job, lost your insurance. You 
have a sick child. You are borrowing money. You are trying every week 
to find a job, and you are three payments behind on your home. You have 
to sit down at dinner one night--a pretty inadequate dinner because you 
are stretching every cent you have--and you have to explain to your son 
and daughter, 10- and 12-year-olds, that they will have to move out of 
their room, out of the house.
  Where are we going to go?
  I don't know yet, but we don't have much space. What you have 
collected in your room, we will have to give some of that away.
  What school will I go to?
  We don't know that yet either.
  I wish they would think of the human cost of what this means when 
people can't get unemployment insurance or can't get assistance in 
continuing health care insurance, so-called COBRA, with the subsidy the 
government paid for the last year and a half--something that had never 
been done before--so people can keep their health insurance.
  Zoe from Columbiana, a county just south of Youngstown, writes:

       I lost my job at the end of August. Until then I was 
     gainfully employed. I worked hard to support my 13 year old 
     twins at home. I am 50 years old. If [unemployment insurance] 
     is not extended, things don't look good for my family. We 
     have lived in a rural area for 12 years and chose this 
     community because it is great for the kids. My house is not 
     fancy or expensive. We don't waste money. We are falling 
     behind payments on our electric bill. Pretty soon our service 
     might be cut. We are just trying to hang on. Please make 
     opponents of the extension realize that most people who are 
     unemployed are not lazy. We lost our jobs, which can happen 
     to anyone. Please help me.

  My colleagues don't understand, people voting against this don't 
understand that unemployment insurance is not welfare; it is insurance. 
You pay into it when you are working. You get help when you lose your 
job. That is the whole point. Most people hope they never draw 
unemployment insurance, of course. But that is what insurance is. Just 
like car insurance, you hope you don't have to use it. If you have 
health insurance, you hope you don't have to use it except for regular 
checkups.
  Monica from Hamilton County--Cincinnati, Norwood, that area, 
southwest Ohio--writes:

       My son was laid off last year. He soon enrolled in college 
     at Cincinnati State to obtain an engineering degree because 
     he was hoping to be more marketable in the future. He works 
     hard. He is doing well. He is excited about a new life. But 
     soon his [unemployment insurance] will expire. With other 
     expenses, he is now afraid he may have to quit school and not 
     be able to support his son. Please continue to work to pass 
     an unemployment extension right away. This support is so 
     vital to so many people right now.

  Joseph from Stark County writes:

       My July 4th will be nothing to celebrate since I will be 
     out of unemployment benefits. Folks are not finding the jobs 
     or the income to supplant the cash that goes to pay their 
     mortgages and other expenses. Helping a whole lot of people 
     to prevent another failure--like massive foreclosures--will 
     save more in the long run. Please consider a vote to help us.

  He is right. The thing about unemployment benefits, it doesn't just 
help the family who gets the benefits; it helps them pay insurance and 
helps them stay in their home. Think of the ripple effect when they 
don't get it. It means if your home is foreclosed on, your next door 
neighbor's home declines in value. And then two streets away, somebody 
else is foreclosed on. Somebody else is foreclosed on across the 
street. The whole neighborhood begins to unravel. These are people's 
personal stories, people's lives. It absolutely matters.
  The other thing unemployment benefits do--John McCain, the Republican 
Presidential candidate, one of his top economic advisers said 
unemployment is the best stimulus to the economy because every dollar 
put in the pocket of Joseph from Stark County or Monica from Cincinnati 
or Zoe from Columbiana County, every dollar we give them in 
unemployment compensation gets spent.
  It is spent. It is spent in Canton and Cincinnati and Lisbon and East 
Liverpool. The dollars are spent going into the economy, and they have 
a multiplier effect that Senator McCain's economic adviser used to talk 
about, that that multiplier effect means generating economic benefits 
for everyone in the community--the hardware store, the local school, 
because you pay your property taxes, all the things that come with 
that.
  The last letter I will read is from Gerald from Wood County, south of 
Toledo, Bowling Green. Wood County is the site of the terrible tornado 
in Millbury that happened a couple weeks ago, where we are working with 
President Obama to get help for people whose homes were destroyed, and 
there were many. Gerald writes:

       I know Republicans are holding an extension to unemployment 
     benefits. Quite frankly it makes me sick.
       I'm unemployed and am looking for a job--but the jobs are 
     not out there.
       Most people must not realize what will happen when 
     unemployment insurance runs out.
       We will suddenly have millions of people without the 
     support they need to live on. Just think of what that will do 
     to the nation's economy.

  Again, this is not a welfare program. It is an insurance program. It 
is not something people want to stay on. They have to show they are 
working to find a job. They have to continue to apply for jobs during 
this whole period. Most people in this country want to work. Most 
people want to protect their family and provide for their family and be 
good citizens.
  This is a bridge. Unemployment benefits--it is a bridge that has gone 
on longer than we had hoped because of the terrible economy President 
Obama inherited in January 2009, where three-quarters of a million jobs 
were lost that month. There has been some good economic news. Ohio, my 
State, in April had more jobs created than any other State in the 
country--37,000. Not enough, not where we need to go, not sustained 
yet, but some good economic news.
  But the unemployment benefits provide that bridge so people can get 
along until they find that job where they can begin again to rebuild 
their lives and join the middle class, as most of these

[[Page 11466]]

people have been a part of for most of their lives.
  So I ask my colleagues, this time please vote to extend unemployment 
benefits, please support the help for COBRA, health insurance so people 
can stay insured and can get their lives in order until the economy 
improves enough where they are actually able to find a job.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Iowa.

                          ____________________