HARRISBURG, June 5, 2012 — State Sen. Anthony H. Williams issued the following statement on today’s Senate passage of legislation to cut unemployment compensation (Senate Bill 1310):
“With votes such as the one today that seeks to dismantle unemployment insurance for tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians, it’s hard to argue that an assault on working- and what’s left of the middle-class among us is fiction. The unfortunate truth is that it’s all too real, no matter how ill-considered, for both families and our fragile economic recovery.
“Unemployment insurance is not an aspiration for most hard-working Pennsylvanians; it’s a stop-gap measure, a lifeline, that keeps lights on, bills paid, groceries stocked and families in place. It’s a small boost of relief during economically shaky times, when there’s no immediate transition to that next job. Most of us know someone who falls into this category, making today’s vote to cut unemployment insurance that much harder to fathom, not when we continue to find tax breaks and other magic money for priority projects of this administration.”
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