Douglas Alexander: “I wish to add to those remarks. This morning I met with a number of Tennesseans here in an event we call Tennessee…”

“I wish to add to those remarks. This morning I met with a number of Tennesseans here in an event we call Tennessee Tuesday. It is a meeting we have every Tuesday. Senator Frist and I host it for Tennesseans who are visiting Washington, and it is a chance to let them know what we are working on. I talked with them about asbestos. One of my friends on the other side of the aisle began this debate, which should have started earlier, by saying: Why are we talking about asbestos when we have a war, when we have deficits out of control, when jobs are going overseas, when kids are not learning in schools, when Medicaid costs are rising and prescription drug benefits are not being delivered as efficiently as we would like? Why are we talking about asbestos? I think we have an obligation to say to the American people, and to ourselves, we know exactly why we are talking about asbestos. We are talking about asbestos because it has to do with tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of American jobs. We are talking about asbestos because it has to do with whether we are going to retain our preeminence as the leader in the world in competitiveness, whether we are going to be able to lead the world in terms of the standard of living we have. We are talking about asbestos because we have thousands of Americans who have been hurt and who deserve compensation and who cannot be compensated. Asbestos is right where it ought to be. It is at the top of our agenda.…”