Senate Debate on Empathy
=====================================

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/videoLibrary/clip.php?appid=598357759

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 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 [Page: S5287] 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 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.