Date: 1982-02-10
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. there are 9.3 million Americans out of worki The bureaucrats tell us that this translates into an 8.5percent unemployment rate but that does not tell the true story. We will hear claims that the unemployment rate dropped by threetenths of 1 percentage point from December. but even those who would make that claim do so with their heads hung down. It is factual that the unemployment rate fell slightly from the December ratebut fell from what9.3 million people unemployed instead of 9.6 million people. That is no solace to the worker standing in an unemployment line for hours desperately hoping for some job. any job at all. just some work. Statistics are no help to unemployed workers fighting to find some way to keep up with the mortgage payments. to keep food on the table. to keep their children in school. To make this ugly picture even worse. the fact that the percentages moved slightly downward is most likely a result of workers giving up. The technical term is "discouraged workers." These are people who have been looking for work so long and not finding itthey have given up. In the last quarter of 1981. according to official estimates. there were 1.2 million "discouraged workers." Can this great country really tolerate better than 9 million people out of work and 1 million or more workers so discouraged that they are forced to give up? The title of this bill tells us the story of what is facing usurgent supplemental appropriationUrgent. that is the word. This is not a normal or regular appropriations matter and it is not the result of some natural disaster. This is the result of an economy that is going out of this administrations control. Last year. I took the floor time and time -again to warn that the ultimate costs of phony economic assumptions would be real harm to American people. Now we are seeing in human terms the results of "magic asterisks" and "unidentified" cuts. Just 4 months after the start of the fiscal year. there is an urgent need for $1.9 billion to pay unemployment benefits. The administration asked the people last year to believe unemployment would be 7.3 percent for fiscal year 1982. and that was the base for the appropriations request. Only a few days ago. when the President submit.ted his fiscal year 1983 budget. he adJusted his unemployment projection upward to 8.9 percentleap of 1.6 percent which roughly translateA into 1.7 million people. The second component of this urgent supplemental is funding for the Employment Service. The Employment Service provides State assistance to people looking for work. The State offhkes are much closer to the job situation in each State. and are better able to help people find jobs and assist in placement and other services. It is preposteous to think that at a time when unemployment Is skyrocketing. it would make any sense at all to cut assistance to people looking for work. The phony econoric assumptions and disregard for the . cal effects of indiscriminate budgetslashing demonstrate. once again. that this administrations overall economic recovery plan is unworkable and is steeped in an unfair distribution of the burden.