Weekly
Address: Time to Pass Bipartisan Legislation to Extend Emergency Unemployment
Insurance
January 4, 2014
Hi, everybody, and Happy New
Year.
This is a time when we look ahead
to all the possibilities and opportunities of the year to come – when we
resolve to better ourselves, and to better our relationships with one
another. And today, I want to talk about
one place that Washington should start – a place where we can make a real and
powerful difference in the lives of many of our fellow Americans right now.
Just a few days after Christmas,
more than one million of our fellow Americans lost a vital economic lifeline –
the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet while they look for a
job. Republicans in Congress went home
for the holidays and let that lifeline expire.
And for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault
of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all.
We make this promise to one
another because it makes a difference to a mother who needs help feeding her
kids while she’s looking for work; to a father who needs help paying the rent
while learning the skills to get a new and better job. And denying families that security is just
plain cruel. We’re a better country than
that. We don’t abandon our fellow
Americans when times get tough – we keep the faith with them until they start
that new job.
What’s more, it actually slows
down the economy for all of us. If folks
can’t pay their bills or buy the basics, like food and clothes, local
businesses take a hit and hire fewer workers.
That’s why the independent Congressional Budget Office says that unless
Congress restores this insurance, we’ll feel a drag on our economic growth this
year. And after our businesses created
more than two million new jobs last year, that’s a self-inflicted wound we
don’t need.
So when Congress comes back to
work this week, their first order of business should be making this right. Right now, a bipartisan group in Congress is
working on a three-month extension of unemployment insurance – and if they pass
it, I will sign it. For decades,
Republicans and Democrats put partisanship and ideology aside to offer some
security for job-seekers, even when the unemployment rate was lower than it is
today. Instead of punishing families who
can least afford it, Republicans should make it their New Year’s resolution to
do the right thing, and restore this vital economic security for their
constituents right now.
After all, our focus as a country
this year shouldn’t be shrinking our economy, but growing it; not narrowing
opportunity, but expanding it; not fewer jobs, but doing everything we can to
help our businesses create more of the good jobs that a growing middle class
requires.
That’s my New Year’s resolution –
to do everything I can, every single day, to help make 2014 a year in which
more of our citizens can earn their own piece of the American Dream.
After five years of working and
sacrificing to recover and rebuild from crisis, we have it within our power,
right now, to move this country forward.
It’s entirely up to us. And I’m optimistic
for the year that lies ahead.
Thank you, and have a great weekend. |
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