Joe Biden on Unemployment: (Jobs Mar 6, 2021)
Extended unemployment benefits for COVID, to contractors too

PROMISE KEPT: (CNN March 6, 2021): The Senate version calls for providing a $300 federal boost to weekly jobless payments and extending two key pandemic unemployment benefits programs through September 6. The agreement would also make the first $10,200 worth of benefits payments tax-free for households with annual incomes less than $150,000.

OnTheIssues ANALYSIS: The extended unemployment benefits under previous legislation was scheduled to end in mid-March [and may get extended again beyond September 6]. The unemployment benefit applies to independent contractors, who are normally ineligible for unemployment.

Ron DeSantis on Unemployment: (Health Care Feb 26, 2021)
COVID: We got it right and the lock down states got it wrong

Jay Inslee on Unemployment: (Tax Reform Jan 12, 2021)
Reduce increases in unemployment tax

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Tax Reform Oct 22, 2020)
Cutting taxes & boosting economy most important to people

TRUMP: We have to make our country successful, as it was prior to the plague. Now we're rebuilding it and we're doing record numbers, 11.4 million jobs in a short period of time. We had the best Black unemployment numbers in the history of our country. Hispanic, women, Asian, people with diplomas, with no diplomas, MIT graduates; number one in the class, everybody had the best numbers. And you know what? The other side wanted to get together. They wanted to unify. Success is going to bring us together. I'm cutting taxes, and he wants to raise everybody's taxes and he wants to put new regulations on everything. He will kill it. If he gets in, you will have a Depression.

BIDEN: I represent all of you, whether you voted for me or against me. We're going to choose science over fiction. We're going to choose hope over fear. What is on the ballot is the character of this country. Decency, honor, respect.

Mike Pence on Unemployment: (Health Care Oct 7, 2020)
Trust people to make smart decisions, mandates not needed

PENCE: President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris consistently talk about mandates, and not just mandates with the Coronavirus, but a government takeover of healthcare, the Green New Deal, all government control. We're about freedom and respecting the freedom of the American people.

Kamala Harris on Unemployment: (Health Care Oct 7, 2020)
Trump knew the truth on coronavirus and covered it up

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Homeland Security Sep 29, 2020)
I created the Space Force and fixed the VA

Mike Pence on Unemployment: (Jobs Sep 22, 2020)
Raising minimum wage is inflationary; would eliminate jobs

"[Pence's opponent] supports an increase in the minimum wage, currently at $3.35 an hour. Pence opposes an increase, saying it would be inflationary. Pence referred to a study that concluded that increasing the minimum wage could eliminate 12,000 jobs in the 2nd District by 1992." [Indianapolis Star, 10/12/88]

"In 2013, House Democrats proposed a bill that would bring the minimum wage to $8.25. Governor Mike Pence made his opposition apparent when he signed into law a bill that prohibits local governments from requiring a higher wage." [Indiana Statesman: Indiana State University, 9/24/14]

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Free Trade Jun 9, 2020)
Trade battles with China, Germany, Britain, France, & Canada

Stacey Abrams on Unemployment: (Free Trade Jun 9, 2020)
Trade wars have real effect on everyday consumers

Joe Biden on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Apr 9, 2020)
Recovery package must provide state aid, hazard pay

Ron DeSantis on Unemployment: (Jobs Apr 3, 2020)
Oversaw unemployment system with maximum $275/week benefit

Most of those who do submit applications won't qualify for aid, and the benefits that are paid out are among the most meager in the country--a maximum of $275 a week. "Everyone we talk to in that office when we ask them what happened tells us, 'the system was designed to fail,'" one DeSantis adviser said. "That's not a problem when unemployment is 2.8 percent, but it's a problem now. And no system we have can handle 25,000 people a day."

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Jobs Feb 4, 2020)
Unemployment at record low, including women & disabled

• African-American poverty has declined to the lowest rate ever recorded.
• The veterans' unemployment rate dropped to a record low.
• The unemployment rate for disabled Americans has reached an all-time low.
• Workers without a high school diploma have achieved the lowest unemployment rate recorded in United States history.

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Welfare & Poverty Feb 4, 2020)
7M people off welfare and food stamps

The unemployment rates for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans have reached the lowest levels in history. African-American youth unemployment has reached an all-time low. The unemployment rate for women reached the lowest level in almost 70 years--and last year, women filled 72% of all new jobs added. A record number of young Americans are now employed.

Under the last administration, more than 10 million people were added to the food stamp rolls. Under my Administration, 7 million Americans have come off of food stamps, and 10 million people have been lifted off of welfare.

Gina Raimondo on Unemployment: (Tax Reform Jan 14, 2020)
Cut car tax & unemployment insurance tax

Andrew Yang on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Dec 19, 2019)
People have jobs, but many need two or more to get by

Kamala Harris on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Jun 27, 2019)
Economic numbers conceal more than reveal

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Jobs Feb 6, 2019)
FactCheck: Unemployment under Trump is lowest in decades

The video features Warren Gunnels, the senator's top aide on the Senate budget committee. Trump said in the SOTU speech, "unemployment has reached the lowest rate in over half a century." The official unemployment rate dropped as low as 3.7% in November--marking the first time it had been that low since 1969.

In the "fact-check" video, Gunnels says "the real unemployment rate--which includes those who have given up looking for work and those who are working part time when they need a full-time job--is 8.1%, not 4%." Gunnels is referring to the U-6, an "alternative measure of labor underutilization." Gunnels is right that the U-6 rate is 8.1%. But this is what he doesn't tell his viewers: Under Trump, the U-6 rate had dropped to its lowest level in 17 years, the lowest since April 2001.

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Jobs Feb 6, 2019)
FactCheck: Unemployment under Trump is lowest in decades

The video features Warren Gunnels, the senator's top aide on the Senate budget committee. Trump said in the SOTU speech, "unemployment has reached the lowest rate in over half a century." The official unemployment rate dropped as low as 3.7% in November--marking the first time it had been that low since 1969.

In the "fact-check" video, Gunnels says "the real unemployment rate--which includes those who have given up looking for work and those who are working part time when they need a full-time job--is 8.1%, not 4%." Gunnels is referring to the U-6, an "alternative measure of labor underutilization." Gunnels is right that the U-6 rate is 8.1%. But this is what he doesn't tell his viewers: Under Trump, the U-6 rate had dropped to its lowest level in 17 years, the lowest since April 2001.

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Families & Children Feb 5, 2019)
Doubled the child tax credit

We passed a massive tax cut for working families and doubled the child tax credit. We virtually ended the estate, or death, tax on small businesses, ranches, and family farms.

Howard Schultz on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Jan 28, 2019)
$5M to start community lending in Great Recession

We found a reputable partner, a trusted nonprofit. The money we raised in Starbucks stores would pass 100 percent to [small lenders] around the country. That money would be equity to borrow more money against and lend to any organization that provided jobs in the community. On average, [the total amount lent would be] seven times the original amount of a grant they received.

Starbucks, in turn, would reimburse operating costs to ensure that 100 percent of every dollar raised from our customers went into communities. In addition, the Starbucks Foundation would make an immediate donation of $5 million, rather than wait for customer donations to add up.

Howard Schultz on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 28, 2019)
Key to job growth is loans to small business

My intention was to spur job growth, beyond the people Starbucks was able to hire. Doing so could help rev the economy. Of all the problems facing the nation, employment was an area in which Starbucks had the most credibility. Creating jobs was what we did. That year, the company was on track to hire 12,000 more partners globally. But if we wanted Starbucks to help make a dent in the country's high unemployment situation, we had to look beyond our own ability to hire.

Small business can be the job engines of local economies. But they weren't growing. The Great Recession had slammed small companies especially hard, in part because they relied on capital from banks to fund their initial growth. But since 2008, many banks were only lending money to the most qualified, asset-rich borrowers. Not necessarily entrepreneurs. We agreed that focusing on funding small businesses [would be our policy].

Bill de Blasio on Unemployment: (Technology Jan 10, 2019)
Create premiere tech hubs, and create 4.5M jobs

The major new announcements from Amazon and Google show that the world's most innovative companies want to be here, and they want to hire New Yorkers.

Now, we have over 4.5 million jobs in this city, for the first time in history. Unemployment at a record low, wages rising. Now, all this has happened in a progressive city. All this has happened in a city that made sure there was fairness. So anyone who tells you that there can't be job growth when we ask for fairness--we're going to prove them wrong here in New York City. This is a city where we expanded paid sick days to half a million more New Yorkers. This is a city where we require businesses to provide a fair workweek to more than 300,000 people. Where we fought and won a $15 minimum wage.

Gina Raimondo on Unemployment: (Jobs Aug 7, 2018)
Touts unemployment rate of 4.3%, lowest rate since 2001

The economic facts that matter to most Rhode Islanders, according to Brown, are that the costs of health care, housing, education and child care have gone up, and continue to go up, while wages have "flatlined." "That basic fact means life has gotten harder for people and continues to get harder," Brown said.

Yet, a July 19 press release from Governor Raimondo's office trumpets 2,500 jobs created in June, "another all-time high jobs record," and an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, the lowest unemployment rate since 2001. "This jobs report is another clear sign that our approach to economic development, commitment to job training and support for tourism is working," Raimondo says in a statement.

John Delaney on Unemployment: (Jobs May 29, 2018)
Public-private training partnership to address skills gap

This skills gap, as it's called, is a huge problem in our country, and it's likely to grow. Yet even though that all the sides agree that we need to close that gap, we've done absolutely nothing about it. Some who've studied this problem believe we should create public private partnerships for workforce training, and such solutions can be essentially bipartisan. But these ideas aren't particularly innovative, which is one reason Congress hasn't yet supported them.

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Foreign Policy Apr 1, 2018)
Gaza is humanitarian disaster; Israelis shouldn't over-react

SANDERS: Yes, they should. Look, Gaza, as I think everybody knows, is a humanitarian disaster. The unemployment rate there is beyond comprehension. And there is just enormous unrest. What the function of the United States government should be right now is to sit down with the Israelis, sit down with the Palestinians and figure out how we can rebuild Gaza.

Q: We should note, the Palestinian Authority did boycott a meeting at the White House recently to talk about rebuilding Gaza.

SANDERS: We should also to tell the Israelis that when you've got tens and tens of thousands of people protesting, they cannot overreact. And the idea of 15 or so people being killed and hundreds being wounded is, to me, unacceptable.

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 30, 2018)
200,000 new manufacturing jobs with lowest unemployment ever

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 8, 2018)
Fact-check: African-American unemployment lowest in history

NPR Fact-Check: Trump's numbers are right, but it's generally a stretch for presidents to take credit for job creation. The unemployment rate for black Americans is currently 6.8%, the lowest level recorded since the government started keeping track in 1972. And Hispanic unemployment rate is at 4.9%, close to a record low. However, Trump is implying that he caused these low African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates. But those rates had been falling relatively steadily since around 2010, under Pres. Obama, and their declines don't appear to have picked up speed. This implies that there's nothing specific that Trump did to change this rate

Gina Raimondo on Unemployment: (Tax Reform Jan 17, 2017)
Reduced the corporate minimum tax

Our business climate is stronger. Last year, we cut our unemployment insurance tax for the first time since 1992, saving employers $30 million. We eliminated the sales tax on energy and reduced the corporate minimum tax. And it's all paying off. Because of the hard choices we've made together and the strategic investments we've protected, businesses are finally taking a fresh look at Rhode Island.

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Nov 15, 2016)
2008 Crash's foreclosures brought about by deregulation

The American dream of homeownership turned into a nightmare of foreclosure for millions of households, as more and more people could not afford to pay their mortgages. This was bound to happen. For years, financial predators received fat commissions form lenders for steering Americans into the riskiest subprime mortgages imaginable--no documentation, no job, no income... no problem. And then, the banks bundled those mortgages, over and over again, into almost worthless and unregulated derivatives, until the house of cards collapsed.

Mike Pence on Unemployment: (Jobs Oct 4, 2016)
Indiana's unemployment rate was cut in half since 2013

Fact Check: While the claim is factual, Kaine's gubernatorial tenure ended in 2010 (the year when the national unemployment rate peaked) and Pence's gubernatorial tenure began in 2013 (i.e., more than 2 years after the Great Recession officially ended and the national economy was expanding).

Jay Inslee on Unemployment: (Local Issues Sep 19, 2016)
Washingtonians work harder, but not sharing national wealth

Janet Yellen on Unemployment: (Jobs Sep 6, 2016)
Inflation and unemployment are inversely connected

Steve Bullock on Unemployment: (Families & Children Mar 11, 2016)
Unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence

The legislature, however, voted down legislation that would have allowed workers to discuss salaries without repercussions from their employer.

Bullock wants employers to take a hard look at what they pay employees, and to make sure that women are being paid the same as men for comparable work. "When working women prosper, overall, families prosper," the governor said..

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Jobs Mar 9, 2016)
Minority youth more underemployed than others

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 20, 2016)
US economy is strong: 900,000 new jobs in the past 6 years

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 20, 2016)
Need retraining programs for workers who lose jobs

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 13, 2016)
We've cut unemployment in half during my term

That chart indicates that unemployment reached a peak of 10.0% in Oct. 2009, eight months after Obama took office. And the current unemployment rate as of Dec. 2015 is 5.0%, exactly half of the peak unemployment rate. So, yes, the president was correct. But voters might interpret his meaning as "an unemployment rate cut in half from when I took office", which is not correct; to be correct, you must use the interpretation "an unemployment rate cut in half from the peak of the recession."

John Kasich on Unemployment: (Energy & Oil Nov 10, 2015)
20,000 jobs from fracking plus 300,000 other jobs

KASICH: In the state of Ohio, we have grown 347,000 jobs. Our unemployment is half of what it was. Our fracking industry, energy industry may have contributed 20,000, but if Mr. Trump understood that the real jobs come in the downstream, not in the upstream, but in the downstream. And that's where we're going to get our jobs. But Ohio is diversified.

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Crime Oct 13, 2015)
America has more people in jail than any country on earth

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Jobs Aug 2, 2015)
Take jobs back from foreign countries to lower unemployment

We have to take back jobs from Japan, and Vietnam, and Mexico, and virtually everybody that's taking our jobs and ruining our manufacturing base. And we have to put people to work. Because the real unemployment number is probably 21%. People give up looking for jobs. And they no longer become a statistic. And it's very unfair. So we have to put our country back to work. We have to get great jobs for people and good paying jobs for people. And we're going to be just fine.

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Jun 28, 2015)
Economic issues take a larger toll on minority groups

But to be honest with you, given the disparity that we're seeing in income and wealth in this country, it applies even more to the African-American community and to the Hispanic community. And what we are going to do is make a major outreach effort to those communities.

Donald Trump on Unemployment: (Jobs Jun 16, 2015)
Real unemployment rate is 20%; don't believe 5.6%

Our labor participation rate was the worst since 1978. But think of it, GDP below zero, horrible labor participation rate. Our real unemployment is anywhere from 18% to 20%. Don't believe the 5.6%. The real number is anywhere from 18% to maybe even 21%, and nobody talks about it, because it's a statistic that's full of nonsense.

Rand Paul on Unemployment: (Crime Apr 28, 2015)
Focus on violent criminals, not nonviolent African-Americans

The lack of trust toward police in minority communities and the protests on our nation's streets are rooted in growing discontent: 57% of Americans express confidence in the police, but only 34% of African Americans feel the same way.

John Kasich on Unemployment: (Tax Reform Feb 24, 2015)
$3 billion in tax cuts for job creators

[My budget represents] the ideas that are producing the economic growth which is making so many of the other good things possible. These accomplishments are sending a message to job creators around the state, around the country, and around the globe that Ohio is open for business. When I tell them that we were $8 billion in the hole and now we're $2 billion in the black, that we've got $3 billion worth of tax cuts, that we've got a private sector entity that can respond to them quickly--it's hard for them to believe. But we've been able to keep growth in check so that there's money to give back to Ohioans in the form of a $500 million tax cut because we have restrained ourselves.

Ted Cruz on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Feb 8, 2015)
Top 1% under Obama got fat & happy while workers are hurting

CRUZ: Well, look, if Hillary Clinton wants to run by telling Americans that the economy is doing great and you can credit President Obama and Hillary Clinton for that, I would encourage her to follow that strategy. Because the simple reality is, that's true for the wealthy. The top 1% under President Obama, the millionaires and billionaires that he constantly demagogued, earned a higher share for our income than any year since 1928. Those with power and influence who walk the corridors of power of the Obama administration have gotten fat and happy under big government. But I'll tell you, hardworking men and women across America are hurting. We today have the lowest labor force participation since 1978: 92 million Americans aren't working, and we've seen wages stagnate.

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 20, 2015)
Best employment growth since 1999; the crisis is past

America, for all that we've endured; for all the grit and hard work required to come back; for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this: The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.

At this moment--with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production--we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth. It's now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next fifteen years, and for decades to come.

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 20, 2015)
FactCheck: Yes, unemployment down; but many stopped looking

FactCheck: That's true, but it's also not the whole story. First, the good news: the unemployment rate currently sits at 5.6%. That's the lowest level since June 2008. Unemployment peaked at 10% in October 2009, and has been gradually falling since.

But it's not all good news. The unemployment rate tallies the percent of people who are both out of a job and actively looking to get one. So there are two ways to leave the legion of unemployed: One can get a job, or one can quit looking all together. In June 2008, the labor force participation rate was 66.1%. In December 2014, that rate sat at 62.7%. And if the same percentage of Americans were competing for jobs today as were in 2008, the unemployment rate would be much higher.

Rand Paul on Unemployment: (Welfare & Poverty Jan 20, 2015)
Federal "gifts" don't generate wealth but perpetuate poverty

The war on poverty is 50 years old, and still black unemployment is twice that of white unemployment. Income inequality has worsened under this Administration, and tonight President Obama offers more of the same policies--policies that have allowed the poor to get poorer, and the rich to get richer.

Pitting one American against another is not a pathway towards prosperity. The President is intent on redistributing the pie but not growing it. He misunderstands that the bulk of America wants a bigger pie. They want to work and don't want a handout--but a hand up.

Cory Booker on Unemployment: (Welfare & Poverty Jun 3, 2014)
Expand EITC to more families & to job grants

The Stronger Way Act establishes a new transitional jobs grant program. This will build a new federal partnership with state and local governments, businesses, and non-profit organizations.

The Stronger Way Act increases the rate at which the Earned Income Tax Credit phases in for working families with children to both encourage work and target additional dollars to low-income working families. Workers with earnings above 50% of the poverty line receive the maximum EITC. Currently, a childless adult working full-time and earning minimum wage receives little to no EITC and can be taxed into poverty. We need to make work pay for everyone by extending this tax credit to workers without children.

Mike Pence on Unemployment: (Jobs Mar 14, 2014)
Education is critical to our success in job creation

The Jobs for America's Graduates program fully understands this importance and has one of the highest impacts of improving employment of any program assessed. The very first policy goal we announced was to reprioritize career, technical and vocational education in every high school in Indiana.

My job as Governor is to help make Indiana such a great place that you wouldn't think of going any place else. So how do we do that? We start by creating good jobs and by recognizing that education is critical to our success in job creation. Strong schools help companies attract talented employees and develop the quality employees of the future.

Rand Paul on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 11, 2014)
Unemployment insurance ok if fully paid for & short-term

PAUL: Well, I think what's really cruel is to have an economy that doesn't have jobs in it. So we have to talk about what policy creates jobs. With regard to unemployment insurance, I'm not opposed to unemployment insurance, I am opposed to having it without paying for it. I think it's wrong to borrow money from China or simply to print up money for it. But I'm not against having unemployment insurance. I do think, though, that the longer you have it, that it provides some disincentive to work, and that there are many studies that indicate this.

Q: But if this extension is paid for, you can support it

PAUL: Well, what I have always said is that it needs to be paid for, but we also need to do something for long-term unemployed people, and that is, we need to create something new that creates jobs.

Rand Paul on Unemployment: (Welfare & Poverty Jan 11, 2014)
Economic freedom zones: low taxes in high unemployment areas

1. If we extend unemployment insurance, we pay for it
2. But we add something to it that would create jobs. And so what I have been promoting are economic freedom zones, which any area that has unemployment one-and-a-half times the national average, we would dramatically lower taxes to try to spur and stimulate the economy there and create jobs.

Rand Paul on Unemployment: (Jobs Dec 8, 2013)
Extending unemployment benefits does disservice to workers

PAUL: I do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks that they're paid for. If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers. There was a study that came out a few months ago, and it said, if you have a worker that's been unemployed for 4 weeks and on unemployment insurance and one that's on 99 weeks, which would you hire? Every employer, nearly 100%, said they will always hire the person who's been out of work 4 weeks. When you allow people to be on unemployment insurance for 99 weeks, you're causing them to become part of this perpetual unemployed group in our economy. And while it seems good, it actually does a disservice to the people you're trying to help. You know, I don't doubt the president's motives. But black unemployment in America is double white unemployment. And it hasn't budged under this president.

Cory Booker on Unemployment: (Jobs Aug 25, 2013)
1/3 of all NJ development is in Newark, where only 3% live

BOOKER: Well, politics is a zero-sum game. The spirit of Martin Luther King taught me that love multiplies and hate divides. We've got too much division going on in our politics. Where people come together, you make remarkable results. Well, Chris Christie and I disagree on most things. But if we just sat back in our relative partisan positions, we wouldn't have gotten anything together. The fact that we've come together right now has created the largest economic development period in Newark in over a generation. In fact, we are 3% of the state's population with a third of all the development in New Jersey is going on in Newark, in commercial multi-families. Our biggest boom, period, because we found ways to get together.

Mike Pence on Unemployment: (Welfare & Poverty Jul 16, 2013)
Faith-based community gives us hope for new opportunities

Where would we be without our faith-based community and the leaders who give us hope and inspire us even as we roll up our sleeves and do the work we need to build businesses and provide new opportunities and help the hurting in our communities?

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Jobs Nov 8, 2012)
Real unemployment is 16%; official unemployment only 9%

Joe Biden on Unemployment: (Jobs Oct 11, 2012)
We can & will get unemployment under 6%

BIDEN: I don't know how long it will take. We can and we will get it under 6%. Let's look at where we were when we came to office. The economy was in free fall. The Great Recession hit. Nine million people lost their job, $1.6 trillion in wealth lost in equity in your homes & in retirement accounts. We knew we had to act for the middle class. We immediately went out and rescued General Motors. Romney said, no, let Detroit go bankrupt. We moved in and helped people refinance their homes. Governor Romney said, no, let foreclosures hit the bottom. But it shouldn't be surprising for a guy who says 47% of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. [Rep. Ryan] recently said 30% of the American people are takers. These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors. They pay more effective tax than Governor Romney pays in his federal income tax

Ted Cruz on Unemployment: (Jobs Aug 24, 2012)
Extending unemployment benefits exacerbates joblessness

A: The private sector creates jobs. But government can kill jobs. Extending unemployment benefits does exacerbate the jobless situation, because it subsidizes unemployment and increases the tax burdens on those who are employed. We should reform our tax code to be flatter and fairer, and pass a strong Balanced Budget Amendment to stop out-of-control government spending and debt. 25 million Americans are out of work because of foolish federal policies that are destroying jobs; I will lead the fight to reduce the burdens on small business and to unleash new jobs and vibrant economic growth.

Cory Booker on Unemployment: (Jobs May 7, 2012)
2002 campaign: unemployment & housing hasn't improved

Cory Booker was not the typical, weak, opponent. Challenging a 16-year incumbent may strike some as a quixotic enterprise, but a number of factors suggest that Booker's run in 2002 could be classified as strategic. Booker maintained that conditions in the city (i.e., high unemployment, low home ownership, and low high school graduation rates) had not improved since James had taken office. Moreover, James' administration had been implicated in corruption scandals.

Sharpe James responded to Cory Booker's candidacy by making the election a contest of racial authenticity. Because James realized that he was losing among whites and Latinos, he knew he had to consolidate the black vote, calling James the "real deal." [Booker lost 53%-46%]

Nikki Haley on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Apr 3, 2012)
2009: Reject stimulus funds because it creates new costs

Nikki Haley on Unemployment: (Corporations Apr 3, 2012)
OpEd: Business-friendliness starts with competitive taxes

As an accountant, I could see that we had one of the most complicated, cobbled-together tax systems in the county. The Department of Revenue administered 32 taxes, but only 3 of them were responsible for over 90% of the state's revenue. The rest were just adding layers of bureaucracy and killing jobs.

Howard Schultz on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Mar 27, 2012)
2009 stimulus package lifted consumer confidence

"Is [the stimulus] going to be helpful in terms of getting the consumer out of this funk?" Maria asked me. My perspective, which I shared with her, was that its most immediate effect would be to lift consumer confidence, which was so critical for people to feel comfortable enough to spend money again. I also said that I did not think the current climate was going to dramatically improve anytime soon, something that all companies had to accept.

At Starbucks, we continued the incredibly complicated, sometimes painful work of cost cutting and making our processes more efficient. Revamping the supply chain. We were closing 300 more stores than previously planned. Most difficult was that we had just gone through another round of layoffs.

Nikki Haley on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 18, 2012)
No unemployment benefits for workers on strike

We will require unions to tell the people of South Carolina how much money they are making on our backs, which politicians they are funding, and how much they are paying themselves. We will protect the right of every private and public citizen to refuse to join a union, and, by Executive Order, I will make it clear that our state will not subsidize striking workers by paying them unemployment benefits. And we'll make the unions understand full well that they are not needed, not wanted, and not welcome in the State of South Carolina.

Nikki Haley on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 18, 2012)
Pledge that every citizen who wants a job, has a job

We have grown and expanded our South Carolina family this year, welcoming in some wonderful new partners. And after all was said and done, we were able to celebrate $5 billion of investment in South Carolina, and the recruitment of almost 20,000 new jobs in our great state.

Rand Paul on Unemployment: (Tax Reform Feb 22, 2011)
Opposed to increasing taxes during recession

I will not vote for a tax increase. I will not vote for earmarks. I will not vote for an unbalanced budget.

Nikki Haley on Unemployment: (Corporations Jan 19, 2011)
Reduce red tape; time is money

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Education Dec 10, 2010)
170,000 high school grads annually have no funds for college

As many as 170,000 high school graduates each year are prepared to go on to college but cannot afford that. Let me repeat that. About 170,000 young people in this country, who graduate high school, who want to go to college, are unable to do it because they cannot afford it.

Are we nuts? What are we doing in wasting the extraordinary intellectual potential of all of these young people? What we are saying to them is because you don't have the money and because college is so expensive, and because our Federal Government is more busy giving tax breaks to billionaires and fighting two wars, we are not investing in you. That makes no sense at all.

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Free Trade Dec 10, 2010)
Disastrous trade policies lead to collapse of middle class

I remember there was one CEO of a large, one of our largest American corporations, and he said: "When I look at the future of General Electric, I see China, China, China, and China." By the way, we ended up bailing out that particular corporation. He didn't look to China to get bailed out, he looked to the taxpayers of this country.

But the word has to get out to corporate America, they are going to have to start reinvesting in the United States of America. They are going to have to start building the products and the goods the American people need rather than run all over in search of cheap labor.

Bernie Sanders on Unemployment: (Jobs Dec 10, 2010)
Extend unemployment benefits whenever jobless rate over 7.2%

Well, in the midst of a serious recession, at a time when millions of our fellow Americans have been out of work for a very long time, it would be, in my view, immoral & wrong to turn our backs on those workers. Their unemployment benefits are going to be running out soon. It is absolutely imperative that we extend those unemployment benefits for the 2 million workers who would lose them.

I do not believe, honestly, that the Republican support now for extending unemployment benefits constitutes much of a compromise because the truth is, for the past 40 years, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, it has been bipartisan policy that whenever the unemployment rate has been above 7.2%, unemployment insurance has always been extended. That is what we have always done. That is what we should be doing in the future.

Joe Biden on Unemployment: (Jobs Dec 4, 2010)
Extending unemployment benefits is the American way

Denying two million Americans unemployment insurance will wind up costing us more jobs. It just isn't smart. And, cutting unemployment insurance is not only not smart, it's not right either. It would mean telling millions of our neighbors who are out of work today through no fault of their own, that they're on their own.

We all know someone who's hit a rough patch. When that happens in America, we help him get back up on his feet. That's who we are. That's the American way.

So I just don't agree with the folks who've said we can't afford a lifeline for Americans who lost their jobs during the worst recession in generations, but we can afford to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. That's bad economic policy, and it's also just simply wrong.

Michael Bennet on Unemployment: (Corporations Aug 11, 2010)
$300B lending fund for small business; plus $12B tax cut

A: In the short term we must get credit flowing again to small business, because they've been shut out of the credit markets since this recession happened, and they create 2/3 of all new jobs. That's part of why it's so critical that we pass a small business and jobs bill, which cuts taxes by $12 billion for small businesses and creates a small business lending fund to support up to $300 billion in new lending. Also, we need to create an economic climate to discourage the movement of jobs overseas, encourage innovation across the board, and transform our public education system into one that prepares students for higher education so that our kids can take advantage of the jobs of the future.

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Corporations Apr 13, 2010)
OpEd: Establish power to seize companies "too big to fail"

Envision the country Barack Obama is creating--the future we have in store if we let him continue to control Congress:
• Inflation will soar--not as a lamentable side effect of our government's policies, but because the government WANTS it, since that's the only way it can pay off its debt.
• Unemployment will stay permanently high--just as it does in Europe--because the government is hogging all the funds needed to create jobs in order to pay for its deficit.
• Confidence in the dollar will ebb so badly that it will no longer be the global currency.
• The government will get the power to seize and reinvent any company it deems insolvent yet "too big to fail."
• The top US tax rate--combined with most states' rates--will reach more than half the income of the productive, entrepreneurial class--shriveling incentive and narcotizing ambition.
• American will lose its remaining manufacturing jobs to Asian nations that don't impose carbon taxes on their industries.

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Energy & Oil Jan 29, 2010)
Big promoter of clean coal technology & nukes

Pres. OBAMA: I know that West Virginia struggles with unemployment. That's part of the reason why I've said that we need a comprehensive energy policy that sets us up for a long-term future. For example, nobody has been a bigger promoter of clean coal technology than I am. Testament to that, I ended up being in a whole bunch of advertisements that you guys saw all the time about investing in way for us to burn coal more cleanly. I've said that I'm a promoter of nuclear energy, something that I think over the last 3 decades has been subject to a lot of partisan wrangling & ideological wrangling. I think that that has to be part of our energy mix.

Mike Pence on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 29, 2010)
$700B stimulus did not deliver promised employment

Pres. OBAMA: You're absolutely right that when I was sworn in the hope was that unemployment would remain around 8%. What ended up happening was that the job losses from this recession proved to be much more severe than anybody anticipated. We underestimated how severe the job losses were going to be. But those job losses took place before any stimulus, whether it was the ones that you guys have proposed or the ones that we proposed, could have ever taken into effect. Now, that's just the fact, Mike, and I don't think anybody would dispute that. You could not find an economist who would dispute that.

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Jobs Jan 29, 2010)
Recession job losses more severe than anticipated

Pres. OBAMA: You're absolutely right that when I was sworn in the hope was that unemployment would remain around 8%. What ended up happening was that the job losses from this recession proved to be much more severe than anybody anticipated. We underestimated how severe the job losses were going to be. But those job losses took place before any stimulus, whether it was the ones that you guys have proposed or the ones that we proposed, could have ever taken into effect. Now, that's just the fact, Mike, and I don't think anybody would dispute that. You could not find an economist who would dispute that.

Joe Sestak on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Dec 25, 2009)
State revenue has declined due to lower employment

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Apr 3, 2009)
G-20 produced "collective document" on global economy

"Today we've learned the lessons of history. We are committed to growth and job creation.... The US [will] clean out the troubled assets... to ensure that our action leads directly to loans to businesses large and small. And our G-20 partners are pursuing similarly comprehensive programs."

"We've got a global economy, and if we're taking actions in isolation in the US, but those actions are contradicted overseas, then we're only going to be halfway effective... [We have had] a drastic reduction in US exports... and the contagion from the financial markets debilitating the economies elsewhere" is affecting other US companies. Obama explained, "this is a collective document."

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Jul 1, 2008)
OpEd: "Hope" translates into economic opportunity

Many of us remember these striking words as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Nominating Convention. If there is one word associated with Barack Obama, from all of his campaigns, speeches and books, it would have to be hope. From an economic perspective, the word hope easily translates into economic opportunity. Without economic opportunity, there is no hope.

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Principles & Values Apr 1, 2008)
1996: job of state senator is organizer, teacher, & advocate

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Immigration Jan 31, 2008)
Immigrants are scapegoats for high unemployment rates

A: Before the latest round of immigrants showed up, you had huge unemployment rates among African-American youth. So to suggest somehow that the problem that we’re seeing in inner-city unemployment, for example, is attributable to immigrants is a case of scapegoating that I do not believe in, I do not subscribe to. There is no doubt that we have to get control of our borders. We can’t have hundreds of thousands of people coming over to the US without us having any idea who they are. We have to crack down on those employers that are taking advantage of the situation, hiring folks who cannot complain about worker conditions, who aren’t getting the minimum wage sometimes, or aren’t getting overtime. There are a whole host of reasons why we have not been generating the kinds of jobs that we are generating. We should not use immigration as a tactic to divide.

Mike Gravel on Unemployment: (Immigration Dec 4, 2007)
We’re making a mountain out of a mole hill on immigration

A: Stop and think. Our unemployment level is about 4.5, and that’s about as low as you can get it. So, where is the problem? We have to have people fill these jobs. They come in and fill these jobs. We call them illegal. Are they illegal? They’re filling jobs that need to be done. But we’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Mike Gravel on Unemployment: (Free Trade Sep 9, 2007)
CAFTA & NAFTA cause unemployment in Mexico & Central America

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Civil Rights Aug 14, 2007)
Blacks should infiltrate mainstream to affect change

“Any solution to our unemployment catastrophe must arise from us working creatively within a multicultural, interdependent economy,” Obama said. “Any African Americans who are only talking about racism as a barrier to our success are seriously misled if they don’t also come to grips with the larger economic forces that are creating economic insecurity for all workers.”

His steadfast beliefs made him less than a unifying force in Chicago’s black community. The idea of building bridges to people of all races was anathema to many old-school black leaders who still sounded a voice in Chicago’s African American community.

Joe Biden on Unemployment: (Education Jun 28, 2007)
Overcome racial achievement gap with early education

A: One of the things that we all talk about is this achievement gap. We should remind everybody that the day before a black child, a minority child, steps into the classroom, half the achievement gap already exists. The moment they walk into that school, they are already behind.

And that gap widens. And it widens because we do not start school earlier. We do not give single mothers in disadvantaged homes the opportunities that they need in order to know what to do to prepare their children.

You’ve got to start off and focus on the nurturing and education of children when they’re very young, particularly children from disadvantaged families. You’ve got to invest in starting kids in preschool at age four. And you’ve got to make sure you have smaller classrooms & better teachers in the disadvantaged schools.

Mike Bloomberg on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Jun 18, 2007)
Turned NYC’s $5 billion deficit into a $4 billion surplus

Mike Bloomberg on Unemployment: (Jobs Apr 19, 2007)
NYC jobs program caused lowest unemployment rate since 1976

“New York City’s economy continues to grow, and today’s news that our unemployment rate fell yet again to an historic low is the latest sign that everything we’re doing to create and keep jobs in New York is working,“ said Mayor Bloomberg. ”Our ambitious five-borough economic development strategy is designed to make the City more livable, more business-friendly and more economically diverse. Our crime rate is lower and our schools are getting better, so it’s no surprise that people want locate and grow businesses here and create more jobs.“

Mark Sanford on Unemployment: (Budget & Economy Nov 7, 2006)
Limit spending increases to population growth plus inflation

With our unemployment rate continuing to lag the national average, we will persist in our push for a lower income tax rate for all South Carolinians so we can reverse this trend. We have effectively the highest income tax rate in the Southeast and the 5th highest rate in the nation and we believe that a lower rate will give South Carolina a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting jobs and encouraging business start-ups. Whether attracting new jobs and capital or looking to grow from within, we must remain competitive with other states (Florida has no income tax) and other nations (even Russia & China are lowering rates) if we are to compete globally.

Barack Obama on Unemployment: (Drugs Oct 1, 2006)
Deal with street-level drug dealing as minimum-wage affair

We can assume that with lawful work available for young men now in the drug trade, crime in any community would drop.

Hillary Clinton on Unemployment: (Energy & Oil Jan 6, 2006)
Need to move toward energy efficiency and conservation

Hillary Clinton on Unemployment: (Jobs Feb 25, 2004)
Pushed for extension of unemployment insurance

This formula explains why staid Senate Republicans have such a hard time understanding Hillary. How can she be so nice on the floor and then turn around and say these awful things about us? They do not grasp the purpose of agitprop: To force a compromise in her direction, it is first necessary to disturb the peace.

Jesse Ventura on Unemployment: (Jobs Dec 10, 2000)
Training and retraining to resolve workforce shortage

Hillary Clinton on Unemployment: (Technology Jan 12, 2000)
Equal opportunity will bridge the digital divide

Hillary Clinton on Unemployment: (Welfare & Poverty Jan 12, 2000)
Equal access to capital and jobs

Hillary Clinton on Unemployment: (Jobs Oct 24, 1999)
The working poor deserve a living wage

Hillary Clinton on Unemployment: (Corporations Sep 25, 1996)
Businesses play social role in US; gov’t oversight required

Other developed countries, like Japan & Germany, are more committed to social stability than we have been, and they tailor their economic policie to maintain it. We have chosen a different path, leaving more of our resources in the private sector.

As a society, we have a choice to make. We can permit the marketplace largely to determine the values & well-being of the village, or we can continue, as we have in the past, to expect business to play a social as well as an economic role. That means we have to look realistically at what government must require business to do, principally in the areas of health, safety, the environment [and so on].