For Immediate Release: June 11, 2008                            

Contact: Emily Barocas /202-225-7295/202-593-1377

 
REPUBLICANS DENY ASSISTANCE TO MILLIONS OF UNEMPLOYED AMERICANS

Washington, DC - Republicans in the House of Representatives stood in the way of providing an unemployment insurance extension to millions of out of work Americans.  Congressman John B. Larson (CT-01), Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, said:

"Today, in the House of Representatives, the difference between the Democratic agenda and Republican roadblocks couldn't have been clearer.  While we were trying to provide unemployment insurance extensions for the millions of Americans who lost their jobs as this economy has turned sour, Republicans stood in the way.  Republicans are frozen in the ice of their own indifference to the needs of the American people.  After seven years of the Bush policies that drove our economy into ruins and squandered a budget surplus, Republicans are turning their backs on the American people.  When their friends in the corporate world face tough times, they are more than willing to bail them out. But they won't do the same for American families.

"There are more long-term unemployed American workers right now than there were the last time we passed an extension of unemployment benefits.  Today's unemployment insurance extension would have provided 13 additional weeks of much needed assistance to 3.8 million Americans, including more than 57,000 in my home state of Connecticut.  And, it would have done so at no additional cost to the American taxpayers.  The money would have come out of the surplus in the unemployment reserves.

"Make no mistake; we will get this legislation to the President's desk, and I hope he signs it.  Republicans can either stand with us to relieve the suffering of the 3.8 million unemployed this economy has created, or they can stand in the way."

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