Van Hollen Urges Passage of Unemployment Benefits

Statement

"The position the Washington Republicans have taken on this issue is a slander against the hardworking people in this country who are out of work through no fault of their own"

Today, Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Assistant to the Speaker, spoke at a press conference with members from the House Committee on Ways and Means urging passage of unemployment benefits. Below is a transcript of his remarks:

"Ms. Banaszewski, thank you for your very powerful statement. You put a very real face on the numbers that we see ticking up second-by-second. I also want to thank Sandy and Jim McDermott for their leadership on this issue, and all of my colleagues.

"Listening to the statement of Ms. Banaszewski, what becomes very clear is that the position the Washington Republicans have taken on this issue is a slander against the hardworking people in this country who are out of work through no fault of their own.

"It also shows a shocking misunderstanding of the way unemployment compensation insurance works. As you heard, in order to receive the insurance that every person has been putting in through their employer, you have to demonstrate that you are out there looking for a job.

"So to suggest that people are sitting back and not looking for work and taking unemployment compensation is an insult to the American people. And what makes that insult even worse is the hypocrisy that Jim McDermott talked about. Because here we have our Republican colleagues saying that in the middle of this economic emergency that people are going through, we're going to insist that we take money somewhere else out of the economy and pay for it.

"But when it comes to people who have no emergency at all, people who are doing just fine, people on Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans -- let's give them a tax break, and let's send the $700 billion bill over the next ten years to the rest of the country, to people like Ms. Banaszewski, to everyone else. They want the rest of America to foot the bill for the wealthiest Americans.

"And finally, the last point I will make. We had a vote here in the House recently where we said let's close some of the loopholes in the American tax law that provide a perverse incentive to ship American jobs overseas, to make it harder to find a job here. Let's close down those loopholes. Let's not reward big corporations who ship American jobs overseas.

"And when given a chance to vote on that bill, the Republicans voted against it. They would rather provide those extra benefits to the biggest corporations, who choose to ship jobs overseas. They prefer to provide that big tax cut to the wealthiest Americans, than take care of the hard working Americans who make this country run and who make this country great.

"So, I want to thank all of the individuals who are here today to tell the truth about what's happening."

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