before i talk about strong and enduring bond between the american and irish people, i just want to thank congress for passing this morning the hire act. it is the first of what i hope will be a series of jobs packages that help to continue to put people back to work all across america. this bill will provide tax cuts to small businesses that are willing to begin hiring right now, putting people back to work. it s also going to provide significant tax breaks to businesses, for investing in their business. and so hopefully at a time when we re starting to see an upswing in economic growth, that will help sustain it. the bill also will continue to improve our ability to finance infrastructure projects all across the countries. i also want to say to the republicans who voted for this bill that i appreciate their
want or what the republicans want. we should also extend unemployment insurance insurance for workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. that s a priority. 2 million americans will lose their unemployment benefit ls by the end of the month. cohost of msnbc s daily rundown savannah guthrie. the extension of unemployment benefits would be tied into a compromise regarding bush era tax cuts. i think that s part of the deal. there may be a little bit more to it. remember on saturday a senior administration official told us that the president s bottom line to go along with this temporary extension of all of the tax rates was to have not only the extension of the unemployment benefits but also some of the other middle class tax breaks that the president had in the original stimulus plan as well as some tax breaks that passed lafrt later. the hire act.