The Best Social Program is a Job

Floor Speech

THE BEST SOCIAL PROGRAM IS A JOB -- (House of Representatives - February 11, 2009)

Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, the best social program is a job. A job provides a person not only wages but also confidence in themselves and their future.

Over the last 4 months of the Bush administration, the U.S. economy hemorrhaged jobs, over 2 million from August to December 2008. In Connecticut, one of our largest employers, Mohegan Sun, suspended construction in September of a one-half billion dollar addition and, as a result, carpenters, electricians, sheet metal workers, and the entire construction trades are now barely getting by collecting unemployment.

We have a choice in the Congress in the next few days--to support President Obama and pass his Recovery Act, putting thousands of construction workers back to work building roads, bridges, and green energy buildings; or we can listen to the Do Nothing Herbert Hoover crowd who want to trip up our new President only a few weeks in office who is only trying to clean up the mess he inherited.

I say vote ``yes'' for jobs, and tell the Do Nothing crowd, as they say in the military: Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

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