Источник: rttnews.com 11:51 20/07/2010
President Barack Obama Monday challenged the Senate to swiftly pass a measure to extend unemployment benefits for those in danger of seeing their benefits dry up.
Obama, who was joined in the Rose Garden by three Americans who are struggling to find work as they near the end of their unemployment benefits, said that support for the unemployed was essential for the nation’s economic recovery.
«Even as we work to jumpstart job growth in the private sector, even as we work to get businesses hiring again, we also have another responsibility: to offer emergency assistance to people who desperately need it,» Obama said. «We’ve got a responsibility to help them make ends meet and support their families even as they’re looking for another job.»
Pointing to the struggles of the three people standing with him who have struggled and failed to find work as their unemployment benefits expire or near expiration, Obama argued that it is vital to extend benefits.
«We need to pass it for men like Jim Chukalas, who’s with me here today. Jim worked as a parts manager at a Honda dealership until about two years ago,» he said. «He’s posted resumes everywhere. He’s gone door-to-door looking for jobs. But he hasn’t gotten a single interview.»
Obama added, «He’s trying to be strong for his two young kids, but now that he’s exhausted his unemployment benefits, that’s getting harder to do.»
In a jobs market where there are five applicants for every opening, Obama said, extended unemployment benefits will help people pay their rent, utilities and put food on the table for their families as they search for work.
Obama also sharpened his critique of his Republican opponents who in recent weeks have blocked efforts to extend the unemployment benefits.
«After years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people who didn’t have any problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn’t offer relief to middle-class Americans,» he said.
Obama took direct issue with Republican Senators who have blocked votes on extending the benefits, some of whom he accused of advancing the «misguided» notion that extending unemployment makes people less likely to seek work.
«That attitude I think reflects a lack of faith in the American people,» he said. «The Americans I hear from in letters and meet in town hall meetings … they’re not looking for a handout. They desperately want to work. Just right now they can’t find a job.»
He added, «These are honest, decent, hardworking folks who’ve fallen on hard times through no fault of their own, and who have nowhere else to turn except unemployment benefits and who need emergency relief to help them weather this economic storm.»
Obama appealed to the Senate to vote Tuesday to extend the emergency benefits and offer a helping hand to out of work Americans.
«It’s time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics,» he said. «We’ve got to stop blocking emergency relief for Americans who are out of work. We’ve got to extend unemployment insurance.»
He added. «I know it’s getting close to an election, but there are times where you put elections aside. This is one of those times. And that’s what I hope members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will do tomorrow.»
With Carte Goodwin due to be sworn in Tuesday to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to once again bring up the bill to extend unemployment benefits for a vote.
Most Republicans continue to oppose the bill, however, arguing that the bill will add to the deficit and that the money used to extend benefits needs to be offset.
Senate Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, «Instead of acknowledging that his economic policies haven’t lived up to his administration’s promises, this morning the President blamed everyone but his own White House for the economic morass we are in.»
«That’s not the kind of leadership we need,» he added. «What the President isn’t telling the American people is that many of us in the Senate are fighting to make sure our children and grandchildren aren’t buried under a mountain of debt.»