Senate Proceeding 11-03-09 on Nov 3rd, 2009 :: 1:11:05 to 1:19:50
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1:11:01 to 1:11:22( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: people on this, the first week, of the native alaska heritage month. thank you, mr. president. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. kyl: thank you, mr. president. issue of the unemployment extension, the benefits that

1:11:05 to 1:19:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jon Kyl

1:11:23 to 1:11:44( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: would be provided to those who find themselves unemployed today and i note that as we speak the rate now stands climbing toward 10% or double digits. those are the latest numbers we have in september and it's pretty clear that there have been more people laid off since

1:11:45 to 1:12:05( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: the end of september. there were about 15.1 million unemployed persons in september and that number has risen by 7.6 million since the start of the recession. in arizona, my own state, 77,300 jobs have been lost just since the so-called stimulus package was

1:12:06 to 1:12:26( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: overal about 2.7 million jobs have been lost in the united states since the stimulus bill. and, yet, dr. christina romer, the chair of the economic council on economic advisers predicted that with the stimulus bill unemployment would never exceed 8.1%. without the stimulus bill unemployment would reach a peak

1:12:27 to 1:12:49( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: high of 9.1% in the first-quarter obviously, unfortunately, both predictions were far too rosy as robert samuelson washington post" the wrap on stimulus one is that it hasn't yet as promised reduced unemployment. president clinton's labor secretary robert rice wrote

1:12:50 to 1:13:10( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: obama's focus on health care when unemployment is fragile could make it appear that the administration h priorities confused. that is precisely what public opinion surveys show as the majority of americans wish we address the problem of joblessness and the economy first and worry aboutoing so after that's fixed.

1:13:11 to 1:13:33( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: it's interesting that one of the -- the president's economic advisers, gerred benstein was asked on an cbs early show by harry smith, when does this country start to c its own? here's what he replied: as far as the overall economy is concerned, private forecasters tell us that by the second half

1:13:34 to 1:13:54( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: of next year, it should be positive, unemployment should be coming down. i hope this is expectation management, by the beginning of the second half of next year is eight months away this is one of the reasons i unemployment benefits. we will continue to see unemployment increase, as i said, to get above the single

1:13:55 to 1:14:17( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: digits into the double-digit atmosphere. now, there's a problem that makes this worsend it's the reasons why republicans have been seeking to authority -- the ability to offer an amendment to this legislation. and so far even though this is supposed to be the world's greatest deliberative body, a parties get to offer amendments to legislation, not one republican amendment has been

1:14:18 to 1:14:39( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: allowed on this legislation. th call. he says no, i guess i don't want to hear a how to deal with the problem. and the reason this bothers me is because at least one of those amendments is i think a very good replican idea on how to deal with the problem, and the problem is doing something about unemployment. how could we best deal with the

1:14:40 to 1:15:00( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: problem of unemployment? obviously, put people back to work. well, what are some of the reasons why it's hard for businesses to put people back to work? one of them is that we have tax on an employer putting people back to work. it's the unemployment tax itself. and how do we pay for the extension of benefits in this

1:15:01 to 1:15:22( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: legislation? we extend that tax. so what we're doing is in order to pay for the extension of unemployment benefits, we tax the very employers when they hire s keeping on their rolls the workers that they currently have, and we continue that tax in existence in order to pay for

1:15:23 to 1:15:43( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: the extension of the republans had a better idea. let's find another mechanism to pay for that extension of benefits. but no, the majority leader says you cannot offer that amendment. now, this hurts workers and it hurts workers in a variety of ways. let me explain very briefly how this tax -- it's called a futa

1:15:44 to 1:16:04( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: surtax actually this is a $2.6 billion extension that is used to pay for the extension of unemployment benefits. it's a tax amounting to .8% of payroll that applies to the first $7,000 of a worker's wages, so tax. the revenues are then deposited

1:16:05 to 1:16:25( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: into the federal unemployment trust fund. it's composed of two parts. a .6% permanent tax rate and a .2% temporary tax rate. futa, this tax, only hurts unemployment and jobreation since it taxes employers for each employee that they hire. according to mark wilson of the heritage

1:16:26 to 1:16:46( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: mandated benefits like unemployment insurance are not free to workers. he goes on. studies indicate that on average over employer-paid payroll taxes is shifted of lower real paychecks. so who is cost of extending the unemployment benefits?

1:16:47 to 1:17:08( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: the workers themselves. republic but we had been prevented from offering of an amendment. and when you take into account the other mandated requirements on employers, the other private sector mandates such as increasing the min resulting higher labor costs will affect an employer's decision about whether and when to hire a worker, which worker

1:17:09 to 1:17:29( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: to hire, how much cash to pay the worker and how long to keep that worker on the payroll. this rise of mandated labor costs paid by employers is one of the most important forces leading companies to lay off workers or temporary workers or contract labor instead of full time employees. so as i said, while i support

1:17:30 to 1:17:50( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: extending the benefits, i believe it's essential that we address the underlying problems of job creation and unemployment. the futa tax only makes those problems worse, especially for small businesses. this is why republicans have that paid for the benefits extension without the futa tax

1:17:51 to 1:18:12( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: on job creation. why would the majority frightened of this? why would he not want to even debate this, i think, obviously legitimate that's one of the reasons why action on thi delayed. this bill could have been completed two i heard some of my colleagues from the other side come down and say why are republicans

1:18:13 to 1:18:34( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: holding up the extension of unemployment benefits? i voted for cloture to proceed. i voted for cloture to proceed to the substitute. i'm not but the majority leader is not holding up his part of the bargain, which is to at least allow some amendments, a very small -- i think it's what? thee amendments or four thathe republicans have offered.

1:18:35 to 1:18:55( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: as i said, we can't even offer this amendment to off alternative way almost all of us want to do and will end up voting to do. i find it really disappointing that a very good republicandea , an obviously legitimate debate to have.

1:18:56 to 1:19:16( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: whether the workers themselves should have to pay for the extension of these benefits and whether in fact that actually ends up putting more people on the unemployment rolls to have to pay for the extension of benefits as time goes on here. i'm very disappointed that not only had we not had the opportunity to offer that amendment, but colleagues from the other side have actually come to the floor and complained

1:19:17 to 1:19:37( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: that republicans are somehow to blame for the extension of unemployment benefits not being permitted. when republicans are not allowed to offer these kinds of amendments, then yes, we will insist which points out the better idea for solving a problem that every one of us wants to solve and the

1:19:38 to 1:19:50( Edit History Discussion )

Jon Kyl: fact that we are not even being allowed to offer the amendment in order to have that debate and challenge our deetion from the other side to see whether they want to continue to support this program with a