Remarkably emotional floor speeches today on the House floor at lawmakers debate changes in unemployment insurance. Rep. Hasegawa was just moved to tears, recollecting what it was like when he had to collect unemployment, and how an extra $10 or $12 mattered so much.

With equal passion, Republicans have been saying that the bill will hurt businesses and cost jobs. Over and over, they've talked about businesses struggling to keep their doors open. Rep. Matt Shea, if I heard correctly, suggested that family members of his were prepared to move a business out of state largely on how this vote (SB 5963) goes.

The bill would reduce unemployment insurance taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars a year while also boosting benefits and making it easier for them to qualify for benefits. A House press release described the employer-paid trust fund as "a healthy and robust unemployment insurance trust fund flush with cash."

UPDATE: And it passes, but not until after lots more emotional debate. A sampling:

-"The last person to leave Olympia caring about businesses, please turn off the lights."
          -House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis.

-And Speaker pro tem Jeff Morris made it clear that Republicans, in talking about federal stimulus dollars, had better stop referring to President Obama as "Obama Claus." Any further reference using anything except the president's real name, he said, "will not be tolerated."

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