American Jobs And Closing Tax Loopholes Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

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Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, tomorrow evening, I think at about 5:30, we are going to have a vote that is going to immediately impact over 1 million people across the country, and millions more after that, if we do not extend unemployment benefits as we have done in every recession, Democratic or Republican President, throughout our history.

Anytime we have seen the unemployment rate, I believe at about 7.5 percent, above 7.5 percent or so, we have extended unemployment insurance benefits--insurance benefits--because you pay in and then when you are not working, you receive benefits. We have done that throughout our history for two reasons: No. 1, because we acknowledge what happens to a family when someone in the family loses their job, when the breadwinner can't bring home any bread; and No. 2, because we know it stimulates the economy. Every economist, from the right to the left, has agreed that the best way to stimulate the economy is to provide dollars to people who are forced to spend it, because they don't have a job. So someone who receives that $250 or $300 a week--it is not enough to do much on, but it is enough to pay the rent, enough to buy some food, enough to pay the electric bill; maybe get the kids some clothes, maybe put some gas in the car so they can continue to look for work. So we know it not only stimulates the economy, but it is the right thing to do from the standpoint of ethics, morals, values.

Tomorrow, we are going to have an opportunity to see whether there are 60 colleagues in the Senate who are willing to vote to stop a filibuster that has now gone on--I believe this is the ninth week--actually, 8 weeks on a jobs bill that included unemployment benefits extension--and then this week, the ninth week on the bill that we are focusing on, including unemployment benefits. It will also do something important for people who have used the first-time home buyer tax credit that runs out at the end of this month, which has been a great stimulus, another part of the Recovery Act that has been very important to the economy. It runs out, and we want people who haven't yet closed on their homes not to lose the ability to have a credit, so the bill will also include extending the home buyers credit implementation until October.

I understand there is a willingness and strong bipartisan support to help first-time home buyers but not to help the people who are out of work and probably are going to lose their houses, which I continue to not understand. I am grateful because I know we have at least one, maybe two Republican colleagues who will join with us to stop the filibuster. I am grateful for that. But we need at least three Republican colleagues to join with us in order to get this done tomorrow night.

We hear a lot of debate, a lot of discussion, a lot of arguments from the people who say: We are happy to extend unemployment benefits; we just want to pay for it.

That sounds great on the surface, unless you know the full history of how unemployment insurance works and the other kinds of decisions we make as a body. We have always funded unemployment benefit extensions through something called emergency spending. As I have said before, if 15 million people being out of work in America isn't an emergency, I don't know what is. That is more people than are affected by a hurricane or a flood or a tornado or an agricultural disaster. We have traditionally done this because it was the right thing to do as an emergency, but also because, again, we lose the economic stimulus, the economic benefit, if we don't do it that way.

For two reasons we have always done it this way. It is interesting that folks who argue passionately that we should not worry about the deficit if we are expanding the estate tax cut for the top 200 or 300 families in America, then deficits don't matter--or the top tax bracket, with the tax cuts under President Bush. Deficits don't matter to them. But, boy, they matter if we are talking about people who are out of work.

I talk to people every day in my State, people who have never been without a job in their lives. They are horrified they can't find a job. They are looking for a job every day. They want to work, but they are in an economy they didn't create, where right now there are five people looking for every one job. That is better than last year when it was six people looking for every one job. We know that because of what we have done with the Recovery Act, we are slowly coming out of the hole, but we have a long way to go yet.

Certainly, this isn't the time to filibuster jobs bills, whether it be small business or the jobs bill that we have been trying to pass in the last 8 weeks. It certainly isn't the time to say we are just tired of hearing about those people who are out of work; it is tiresome. Some people say that. They are tired of hearing about the unemployed.

Well, people in Michigan are tired of being unemployed. They want to work. They know how to work. They have worked their whole lives. It is not their fault that the crisis happened on Wall Street that dried up credit, that stopped manufacturers and small businesses from getting loans to be able to continue to do business. It is not their fault that they lost their savings or their 401(k)s or their pensions. It is not their fault we didn't enforce the trade laws in this country and lost 6 million manufacturing jobs under the previous administration because the focus was on cheap products rather than American jobs. That is not their fault.

It was not their fault that we continue to have tax incentives that promote jobs going overseas, which we want to do away with in the jobs bill. It is not their fault.

Mr. President, I want to read one e-mail out of the thousands I receive. I received it today. It is from Serena in Dearborn, MI. It says:

Senator Stabenow, the argument by the Republicans seems to be that they don't want to strap ``our children and grandchildren'' with the debts of their parents; however, I believe they are talking about their children and not mine. I say this because my children will be homeless and hungry in the next week or so.

A lot more damage is going to be done in the here and now than anyone realizes. If they are talking about the numbers of people being taken off unemployment insurance benefits, they are talking about families, not just adults. Families. I have two sons; where are we going to live, and how are we going to survive?

I wonder how many of these ``intelligent'' people went to college and paid for it all as they went and did not incur any debt? I am attending college currently and I am incurring debt because I plan, in the future, to be able to pay back the money with my new, better paying job. That is how most people have to do it, invest in the future and know that you are doing something not just for yourself but also for the country, become a positive influence on the society.

I don't know what I am going to do with my children, how I am going to pay my rent and utilities, have food to eat and gas to put into my car, so I can continue going to school and looking for work. I have never been without a job before.

Mr. President, that is a story that is repeated hundreds of thousands, in fact, unfortunately, millions of times across this country right now. People who are doing what we have asked them to do; they are caring for their children, many going back to school and trying to do a different career or upgrade their skills to give them something that gives them an edge in the job market to be able to get a job. But they are using unemployment benefits to keep them between being on the street and having a roof over their heads.

That is not some political rhetoric. That is what is happening to people. It doesn't have to happen to people. Serena, in Dearborn, MI, doesn't have to become homeless in a week or so. She doesn't have to, if we can come together and override this filibuster on unemployment benefits. We just need 60 people to support it in order to be able to get this done. I fear for Serena and for the tens of thousands of people in my State if we don't do this--and the millions who find themselves in a situation across the country.

We will never get out of deficit with over 15 million people out of work. This idea that suddenly now nothing matters but deficits ignores how we are going to get out of deficit. Back in the 1990s, when we actually balanced the budget, I was proud to do so. I think it was in 1997, when I was in the House under President Clinton. Part of what we did was focus on work, jobs, and education, and 22 million people got new jobs--22 million new jobs were created, and we came out of deficit. That is what we believe. That is what our Democratic majority believes, that you focus on work, you focus on small businesses getting capital, and manufacturers getting back to hiring people, and you focus on jobs. Then you lift us up out of deficit because people are working and buying things and paying their taxes, and they are part of the economy. It can't just be about a few people in our country.

We will not have a strong country if somehow the policies are only set for a privileged few. We have been different from other countries because we have had this strong middle class, which we are losing as a result of the policies, yes, in the last administration, and the deficits that were created, and we are losing it because we cannot get past filibusters now to move forward on a jobs agenda and help people who are out of work to be able to continue to live.

The Recovery Act that was put in place last year has worked, but there is much more to do. It stopped us from going over the cliff and began to turn things around. But there is much more to do. Somehow, just saying that, well, Wall Street is doing better--despite the ups and downs on Wall Street--and things are kind of doing OK now for those folks, so we are done ignores what is going on for way too many people in this country.

Mr. President, I think the latest poll I saw was that 47 percent of the people in my State have someone in their immediate family who has lost their job, and their family is impacted by that. That is astounding. We don't have the highest unemployment rate anymore; we have the second highest rate. I am sure that can be said of Nevada, Rhode Island, California, and around the country.

I strongly urge my colleagues to set aside the election politics, set aside whatever it is that has been getting in the way of getting this done, and be willing to look at what is happening for real families right now and how we can make sure that Serena isn't homeless with her two children in a couple of weeks and how millions of other Americans can be able to continue to care for their families while they look for work.

Then the most important thing we can do is partner with business, create the atmosphere and incentives to create that work. That is our job. I am laser-focused on that as well.

I see my distinguished friend from New Jersey. I will yield the floor to him and thank him for his passionate support for the people in this country who just want a fair shake. I thank the Presiding Officer, as well, for his passion and commitment to jobs and making sure we move our country forward by paying attention to the great middle class of this country, who need us to fight for them. That is what we are doing in the Senate.

I yield the floor.

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