[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12762-12763]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              JOBS AGENDA

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I welcome back my colleagues and hope they 
are as eager to get to work as I am.
  During the week I spent in Nevada, I saw again how desperate our 
unemployment situation has become. As I talked to Nevadans, I heard 
over and over how they need us to help create conditions to help 
businesses create jobs. For example, I met one man in Reno who is 51 
years old. He said he had never missed a payment on his home since he 
had bought it many years ago. He was going to this month because he was 
unemployed and couldn't find a job, and he had worked very hard to try 
to find a job. But now, like 14 percent of Nevadans, he is out of work 
and can't find a new job. There are just too many people looking for 
too few jobs. Now he cannot make his mortgage payment, as I have 
indicated.
  He is the kind of person we need to keep in mind when we talk about 
creating jobs. His family is the kind of family we need to keep in mind 
when we talk about helping the unemployed with emergency aid. This man 
knows he will not get rich off his unemployment check, but it might 
help him keep a roof over his head.
  Those unemployment benefits we are working to extend--for every job 
that becomes available, five people line up for that job. And for every 
$1 we spend in unemployment benefits, $1.61 is returned to the economy 
because that money is spiraled into doing a lot of good things because 
they can pay their rent, make their house payment, buy some clothes.
  I repeat what I have said here before: Mark Zandi, who was, during 
the Presidential run, John McCain's chief economic adviser, said the 
most important money we could spend right now is for unemployment 
benefits.
  As to my friend in Reno, NV, his struggle, his fears--what keeps this 
man up at night--is what we should remember when the other side 
pretends this is more about politics than it is about people.
  This work period, like every work period, will be about jobs--the 
work period here in the Senate--how to create them, how to save them, 
and how to prevent another crisis such as the one that killed them in 
the first place.
  We are going to build on momentum we have already seen from the 
economic recovery plan, also known as the stimulus. This jobs crisis 
was not created in a day, and it will not be solved overnight. But in a 
short time, we have come a long way.
  Three million Americans who are going to work today have the Recovery 
Act to thank for their jobs. In Nevada, the Recovery Act created or 
saved more than 4,000 jobs this spring, and as more projects get 
underway, it will create even more jobs this summer. And don't forget 
that the stimulus also cut taxes for families, small businesses, 
students, home buyers, and the unemployed.
  But it is just a step, a first step. Over the next month, we are 
going to do everything we can to make a few more big steps. One of 
these steps will be to pass the small business jobs bill. It is now on 
the floor. We know the best way to create jobs, innovate, and help our 
economy recover is through the private sector. We know the engine that 
runs the private sector is made up of small businesses. These 
businesses are the ones that have felt the most pain in this recession. 
Two out of every

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three jobs we have lost were from small business. Our bill, which is 
fully paid for, will put people back to work through a number of 
initiatives.
  First, it gives small business tax incentives to help them hire and 
grow more people. Two, it increases Small Business Administration loan 
limits. Three, it makes it easier for small businesses to export goods. 
And four, it creates a small business lending fund that will give small 
banks more capital.
  Another step we will take this month is the long overdue--it is long 
overdue; and I have talked about it a little bit this morning--
extention of emergency unemployment insurance for so many who have been 
out of work for so long. It is more than 2 million people.
  When millions of Americans lost their jobs, they lost their incomes, 
their homes, their savings, their gas money, their tuition payments, 
and on and on and on--all through no fault of their own. Democrats are 
not about to turn our backs on out-of-work Americans, which is why we 
are trying to help them keep their heads above water in this crisis.
  The third step is Wall Street reform. It is just as much a jobs bill 
as the first two I mentioned. We all know greed on Wall Street is what 
triggered the recession, suffocated the job market, and robbed millions 
of their incomes. By cleaning up Wall Street, we are going to make sure 
big bankers can never again gamble away our economy. We are going to 
make sure there is not a next time.
  Helping small businesses, helping the unemployed, and cracking down 
on Wall Street are three equally important approaches to the same 
problem--and to our No. 1 priority--jobs. But these three also have 
something else in common: A minority of Senators is standing in the 
way.
  We have tried for months to help people. Nearly every Democrat has 
said yes, and nearly every Republican has said no. That opposition is 
stopping recovery in its tracks.
  Every day we keep small businesses from creating jobs, or deny the 
unemployed the assistance they need, or let Wall Street get away with 
the same tricks that nearly sank our economy, we are making a difficult 
situation even worse. We are keeping people off payrolls, keeping 
businesses from hiring, and keeping our country from coming back 
stronger than ever.
  Simply put, obstruction of these good bills is costing Americans 
jobs. The other side thinks saying ``no'' helps them. But it sure does 
not help the people we are supposed to represent.
  I hope we will get our priorities straight this work period. It will 
be a productive one if we do. The next time we go back home to talk to 
our constituents, we will be able to deliver better news, and they will 
be able to tell us the same in return.

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