Stimulus Package

Floor Speech

STIMULUS PACKAGE -- (Senate - January 31, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today as a member of the Finance Committee, along with the distinguished Chair, to speak about what we did in terms of the Senate Finance stimulus package which I think is something that makes a tremendous amount of sense for people, for investment, for the economy.

Before speaking about unemployment compensation insurance, which is a critical part of the package, let me say that I commend most sincerely our chairman, Senator Baucus, our ranking member, Senator Grassley, for again not only working together but producing something that is a balanced approach, that addresses both stimulus from the standpoint of helping people, puts money directly back into people's pockets, but also helping to stimulate and support businesses, small businesses, large businesses, those not only earning a profit and make investments but those that are not earning a profit and making investments.

They had the vision to work with us in the area of alternative energy production, to extend production tax credits which directly relate to jobs. That is a part of this bill as well. I thank them for taking a look at the House package, and while we commend what was done--it was bipartisan, they did it quickly, it was a step in the right direction working with the White House--we found there were parts of what they did in structuring the rebate that needed to be fixed because we found that over 20 million seniors would be left out of getting a rebate because they do not have earned income; they are living on Social Security. They would have been left out, as well as about a quarter of a million disabled veterans, again, living on disability, not having earned income.

Not only is it the right thing to do, the moral thing to do to make sure our seniors can get help, that we are helping disabled veterans, but economically it is the smart thing to do because we know those who are living on fixed incomes are spending the dollars because they have to be able to live, to pay the rent and the mortgage and the heating bill and the food and prescription drug costs, all of those. So immediately giving help to those who are struggling to make ends meet is not only right, it is smart in terms of the economy.

The Senate package expands on what the House did to make sure we don't leave out people, that we don't leave out senior citizens and disabled veterans. We also make sure we don't leave out millions of Americans who have worked all their lives, middle-income wage earners who have built the American dream for their family, have a home, have had in the past the ability to send the kids to college, maybe they had, in Michigan, a cottage up north or a snowmobile; they had the ability to live the good life that we have all wanted for ourselves and our children and have found themselves caught in an economic downturn and, in fact, a recession.

For the State of Michigan it looked like for too long a recession. A lot of middle-income families now find themselves in a situation where they are out of work. They want to work. Nobody wants to live on 40 percent of their income, which is what unemployment compensation provides, and try to make the mortgage payment, care for the kids, pay the heating bill and the food bill and do all those things that we need to do--pay the gas prices, and so on. Nobody wants to be unemployed, and nobody wants to find themselves in a situation where they have to live on unemployment benefits. But we have millions of people who find themselves in that situation.

Our Finance package makes sure we can extend benefits, 13 weeks for unemployed individuals in every State and then an additional 13 weeks for those who are in States of high unemployment. This is the right thing to do. It is not only the moral thing to do, it is the smart thing to do when it comes to the economy.

We had economists from President Reagan's time, economists from President Clinton's time. We had everything in between. We had the Congressional Budget Office tell us that extending unemployment compensation is one of the top two ways, along with food stamps, to stimulate the economy quickly. We don't have to wait until the IRS gets done with tax season, doing all the rebates and getting around to doing the additional rebates in May, June, and July; this can happen immediately. We go directly to those who, unfortunately, are not in a position to save but need to spend every single dollar that comes into their household in order to try to hold things together and not lose the house and to keep their family going.

All the signs show this will be a terrible recession for American workers. We are moving in a direction that is extremely difficult. The national unemployment rate has shot up to 5 percent, and experts predict it is going to rise above 6 percent in 2009. We have never had such a dramatic jump in unemployment without having a recession.

In many States the jobs picture is far gloomier. As I mentioned, in Michigan, we have an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent. That is one area where we don't want to be first. In fact, we are working very hard to turn that around in a number of ways. Other parts of this bill deal with alternative energy, and that is great for us because we are making those wind turbines and solar panels and the alternative fuel vehicles. We are working very hard to move ourselves out of that situation. But we have a lot of people who are working very hard who, through no fault of their own, have lost their job and have not been able to find another one in this economy.

In addition to Michigan's 7.6 percent, Mississippi is at 6.8 percent unemployment. Ohio, Alaska, and South Carolina are all over 6 percent and expected within the month to meet the trigger that is in this bill of 6.5 percent. That is a possibility. The unemployment problem is, unfortunately, getting worse rapidly. We had more than half a million workers join the ranks of the unemployed in the last month; 500,000 people who have become unemployed in the last month alone. Workers who have lost their jobs are having more trouble finding work today than in past recessions. Today 17 percent of workers have been looking for a job for more than 26 weeks, compared to only 11 percent in 2001.

Let me also stress that in the last package we had, the last stimulus package, we were looking at long-term unemployment of 11.3 percent, back in January 2001 when we were first talking about a stimulus and decided to include unemployment insurance. Now, as of December, this last December, long-term unemployment is 17.5 percent. It is 55 percent higher than it was when we started first talking about the last stimulus package in which we included unemployment compensation extension. I am very grateful to the chairman, the leadership of the Finance Committee, and our leader, Senator Reid, for speaking out about this and supporting our efforts to make sure this is in the package.

This problem is affecting workers all across the economic spectrum, even those with a college education and years of experience. We have engineers in Michigan. We have talented, well-qualified, well-educated people who find themselves in this situation of losing their jobs. There are nearly two unemployed workers for every job opening across the country, which is also critical to talk about. We have right now 7.7 million Americans who are competing for 4 million jobs.

Some people say: Well, if somebody is on unemployment compensation, they just don't want to work. If we extend that compensation for another 13 weeks or 26 weeks, people just don't work. That will be an incentive not to work.

I welcome anyone to talk to a family in Michigan and say that. The reality is, we have 7.7 million Americans competing for 4 million jobs. That raises a whole other host of issues I will not get into today about how we need to start exporting products and stop exporting jobs and all the other things we need to do to tackle this issue of a strong economy. The reality is for too many folks, that debate is not going to help. They are looking at, right now: Am I going to be able to keep the lights on? Am I going to be able to keep the phone on? Am I going to be able to make sure I can make a mortgage payment so my family is not out on the street? Those are the questions that are being asked. No one is finding themselves in unemployment insurance living it up. It is just about trying to help them keep the family together, keep things together until they can find that next job. This is what they are competing against.

Because it is becoming harder to find a job, more families are finding that our unemployment insurance system is not providing enough support because of the numbers. Mr. President, 37 percent of recipients, 37 percent of the people who are unemployed exhaust their benefits before finding a job, and more will follow as the recession deepens. And 2.6 million people ran out of benefits in 2007. Again, they were competing for jobs where there are not enough jobs.

These aren't just numbers. There is a lot of numbers that can make this case. But it is about millions of people, millions of Americans, millions of middle-class Americans, millions of people who are working hard to be in the middle class or fighting like crazy to stay in the middle class. That is what this is about. They are willing to work hard. They are looking for a job. They want a job. They are desperately concerned about losing their chance at the American dream for themselves and their families.

In good economic times, our current employment benefits are enough to tide families over for the few weeks that it takes to find another job. I remember those times. Somebody needs some temporary help, they lose a job, turn around, go out on a few interviews and, a few weeks later, they have another job. But these are not those times. These are not good times.

Yesterday's alarming GDP figures show that economic growth has trickled to a near halt. Savings have plummeted. Debt is rising. Mr. President, 200,000 families each month risk losing their home. It is staggering, in the greatest country in the world. The Fed has cut short-term interest rates more rapidly than at any other time in history. It is clear that we are facing an economic crisis that will make it even harder to find a job in the coming months. Faced with these clear warning signs, we must act quickly.

Anything that we pass--and I sure hope it is the Senate Finance proposal because I think it is balanced, it is effective, it is targeted, and it is the right thing to do--has to include extending unemployment compensation for these families who have found themselves in such a traumatic situation. It is wrong to abandon them when they need it the most. It is the smart thing to do according to all economists. If we want to say we have done something that is targeted, that is quick, extending unemployment is much quicker than a rebate check. I certainly support the rebate check, but it is going to take a while to get those to people. Unemployment extension is much quicker. It is one of the quickest things we can do.

So from every angle, this is the right thing to do. Most importantly, though, I look at the families who are looking to us to do the right thing.

In the past we have waited too long, and working families have suffered. In the wake of September 11, the unemployment rate rose to 5.3 percent in October of 2001. There was a bipartisan consensus we should do something, but political gridlock prevented us from enacting anything until the following March of 2002. By that time, unemployment was up to 5.7 percent and went to 5.9 percent in April. The 2001 recession proved devastating for our economy and, unfortunately, too many families have not recovered from that time. The bill passed by the Finance Committee yesterday is a crucial step forward for our economy and for our workers and their families.

By extending unemployment benefits for 13 weeks and providing an additional 13 weeks of benefits in high-unemployment States, as I said before, we provide an immediate boost to the economy and at the same time help hard-working middle-class families weather this storm.

All of the economists agree: Each $1 invested in benefits to out-of-work Americans leads to a $1.64 increase in growth--$1 equals $1.64 in growth. That is clearly one of the top two things we can do to be able to stimulate the economy. This compares to only pennies of stimulus in other areas.

No stimulus package will be effective unless it provides real security for families struggling the most. We have to address this issue. We have to address this unemployment situation.

Let me say, in closing, when we look at the coming year--in January of last year, average unemployment was 4.6 percent. At this time, it is 5 percent, although many areas are much higher than that. But it is projected that by next year the unemployment rate will go up to 6.5 percent. Now, granted, Michigan right now is at 7.6 percent. There are other States that are above 6 percent, above or close to 6.5 percent. But this is the direction in which we are going.

One of the things about acting now with an unemployment compensation extension is we can help those families at this moment who need help now. We can actually be ahead of the curve rather than way behind in helping a family be able to keep their house or to be able to put their family at ease, knowing that at least there will be something available.

The Senate Finance package makes sense. It is the right thing to do. On the business side, we not only focus on investments for those that are making a profit but for those that are not but are still making investments in important areas of the economy, such as manufacturing in Michigan. We extend critical tax credits for alternative energy production, which is critical. We make sure over 20 million seniors are not left out, that over 250,000 disabled veterans are not left out. We add a piece for State and local bonding authority for housing, which will help and support what the House did.

Then we do what I have talked about today: We remember the faces of the people who have worked hard to make this country great, middle-class families across this country who through no fault of their own and, I would argue, too much of the time through action of the current administration or inaction on what we need to be doing on enforcing trade policy or changing the way we fund health care in this country or doing other aggressive actions in order to keep jobs and expand jobs, find themselves caught in this economic downturn.

They are looking to us. If there ever was a time that they would expect their Government to act on behalf of middle-class America, it would be now. It is critically important. I am very pleased the Senate Finance package includes extended unemployment compensation. I hope when it is time to vote, we will see a very strong bipartisan vote on this issue.

Mr. President, before stepping down, I see my good friend, the ranking member, the Republican ranking member of the Finance Committee, on the floor. I personally thank him for working with us on an approach that is good for people. It is good for families, individuals, for seniors, disabled veterans, good for business, looks to the future on energy. I appreciate his leadership, as always.

I am hopeful we will see a bipartisan vote that says we get it and we are committed and we are willing to move in a way that supports the economy and the families of America.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Source