Jumpstart our Business Strength (JOBS) Act

JUMPSTART OUR BUSINESS STRENGTH (JOBS) ACT

Ms. CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. President.

Let me start off by correcting a few things my colleagues have said on the floor. This is a debate about 1.5 million people who have lost their jobs and have not been able to find work and have been without benefits.

To be clear, the unemployment program at the Federal level does not exist today. It was terminated as of the 31st of December. This isn't a continuation of a program that has been in place for the last several months. It has not been in place.

As it relates to the Clinton administration and the economic numbers, say we cut the program off in better economic times and worse economic times, the whole point of this debate is the fact the economy and job creation has not taken place at the level that would have employed the number of people who have lost their jobs starting with over 2.6 million people. While we have had some job growth, we have not totally recovered. While the Clinton administration cut off the program at a time of higher unemployment, they actually had net job growth. That is why they terminated the program. We are not in that same situation.

In fact, it is no wonder Alan Greenspan basically, before a House committee, came to the same conclusion and said if you have a large number of exhaustees it makes sense to go ahead and use the program to take care of those exhaustees.

So here is one of our chief economists saying, Yes, the Clinton administration did something different, and they did it differently because they had job creation and net job growth going on. We do not have net job growth going on.

My colleague mentioned Alan Greenspan and the deficit and what we need to do to take care of the deficit moving forward. Alan Greenspan, who is also very concerned about the deficit, said exactly this. The number of exhaustees alone will tell you it is time for us to go ahead and take this program and take care of those 1.5 million exhaustees because of their large number.

Let us talk about where we are going to spend money. I think that is the reason we are in this debate. Some of my colleagues said it is about the deficit. Let us take this bill, for example. Let's take the underlying bill and talk about what we are spending money on. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of my amendment at $5.8 billion. If the Senator from Oklahoma can get a larger number-