Posted on 09/19/2002 7:42:58 PM PDT by Pokey78
WASHINGTON — For 23 years, Felix Batista rode the elevator up 106 floors to work as a member of the wait staff at the Windows on the World restaurant. On Sept. 11, everything changed. Mr. Batista was on vacation with his family, and that decision saved his life. That day, he lost 73 coworkers and his job.
While the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks has come and gone, in New York the needs born out of that tragedy remain. Each step that we take — whether it is investing $20.9 billion for cleanup and recovery or financing programs to track the health of rescue workers and volunteers at ground zero — will bring New York closer to recovery.
But today, the city's unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 8 percent. Across the state, 553,000 New Yorkers are out of work, with company layoffs and plant closings happening everywhere from Niagara Falls to Rochester. Now 135,000 New Yorkers like Mr. Batista have exhausted their unemployment benefits and are struggling to pay their bills.
At this time last year, 800,000 Americans had been out of work for six months or longer. That number has nearly doubled to 1.5 million and it is expected to increase to more than 2 million by December.
Congress must act quickly to extend unemployment insurance and disaster unemployment assistance, each for an additional 13 weeks. With more people losing their benefits every day, these extensions have to be passed before Congress adjourns.
During the recession of the early 90's, Congress extended temporary benefits five times. This year, even in the wake of massive terrorist attacks on our own soil, we have extended benefits only once, and once is not enough.
The economy was already in a recession on Sept. 10. It was devastated on Sept. 11, and is stalled now. Some forecasters say we are experiencing a "jobless recovery" — one in which stockbrokers, electricians, insurance agents, computer technicians, textile workers and restaurant workers have formed lines many blocks long to attend job fairs. New revelations about corporate irresponsibility and illegality have added more doubt to an already weakened economy.
Extending unemployment insurance would put money into the hands of the very people who will turn right around and put it back into our economy. In 1999, the Department of Labor found that when unemployment insurance is extended, every dollar in benefits generates $2.15 in gross domestic product. Giving more purchasing power to the more than 8 million Americans who are currently unemployed would be a powerful stimulus for our economy.
After Sept. 11, it was clear we needed a serious push for homeland security. Now we need to restore a measure of economic security to all Americans, and extending unemployment benefits is a responsible and affordable way to do so.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic senator from New York.
She's helping Bill?
I can't beleive she wrote this. This is the exact arguement for tax cuts,
which she calls trickle down economics. Hope someone sticks this back in her face.
Heck,Viveca,I'd be an atheist too myself, but I don't have enough faith to be one. You also can't prove God is NOT there either, you just take it on faith. So I guess there can be those that believe and are pink or red. Besides I did'nt like her father either as an actor.
Help Jim Talent take the Senate AWAY from Da$$hole and Hitlery! To make a contribution to Jim Talent, former Congressman from St. Louis, running against current Senator Jean Carnahan (who was appointed when her dead husband narrowly "won" in 2000 election over John Ashcroft), click on the Link below or mail a check to the address below.
Jim Talent for Senate
9433 Olive Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63132
Political memory has a short half life. Besides, people that like her don't care or are convinced that her politcal opponents have fabricated everything. She'll run if she thinks she can get the nomination this time around. That's my prediction.
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