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-The senate will take up a historic measure.
It is a question of whether or not we should provide unemployment benefits
to the millions of Americans
who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are victims of this recession.
What do these benefits mean to these families out of work,
literally bread on the table,
literally whether the lights go on we flip the switch,
literally whether they have a roof over their heads.
You know this didn't used to be a political issue.
We can get involved in a partisan debate about unemployment benefits when it came to other
presidents
but under this President Barack Obama the republicans have decided to take a stand.
-I guess
the reason for that is that they think of these as numbers, they don't think of these people because
I cannot imagine coming down when they call you a name out in the well and you respond
you say no over and over and over again as has happened
about the last seven weeks.
It's just an amazing thing to me and I I think that, I think my colleagues
who vote no, the forty, the forty republicans who vote no,
thirty nine or forty republicans, who vote no must see this
unemployment insurance as welfare. I know some of them think that that,but its insurance
we don't call it unemployment welfare, we call it unemployment insurance. That means that
you pay in when you're working, you get help when you're not.
-Unemployment
insurance.
It's insurance against being unemployed.
That's what it is!
It's not some grant, it's not some give away,
it's not an earmark,
it's insurance,
it's social insurance created by the United States of America
in partnership with the private sector and the people who work every day.
That when you hit a speed bump
and have to be laid off of no fault of your own
there will be a safety net so that you do not fall. It is insurance, it is social insurance,
it is a social contract and it is a social compact.
-This afternoon we have a chance
to give a helping hand to people who lost their jobs
through no fault of their own
and need just the little assistance from us as a nation,
so that they can move forward and help this nation move forward again.