[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11384]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         MEAN-SPIRITED STINGERS

  (Mr. CLEAVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, this is a very sad time for me and, I hope, 
for others. Unemployment is at 9.2 percent. For African Americans, it's 
at 16.2. If you use the Labor Department's U6 standards, it's almost 30 
percent. And all we want to do here is argue--argue.
  These are real human beings who are out here struggling. I saw a lady 
the other day working at a hotel, cleaning up, with a college degree 
from Howard University. She can't get a job.
  And so what are we going to do in Congress? While Congress likes to 
bash, the jobless need cash.
  What do we need to do to get things going? Well, we need to stop 
being so mean. Mean, that's what we are down here.
  A bumblebee cannot sting and make honey at the same time. And what we 
have decided to be in Congress is a big group of 435 stingers.

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