Political Quotes

“As founder of the congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, I rise today to continue sounding the alarm about the tide of poverty sweeping across this country. Last week, the United States Census Bureau released its annual report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010. It revealed a disturbing but unsurprising spike in the poverty rate--from 14.3 percent in 2009 to a staggering 15.1 percent in 2010. In 2010, 46 million people lived in poverty in America. That is essentially the populations of California and Michigan combined who are living in poverty in America. It's really a moral outrage that in the richest country in the world so many Americans are facing or are living in poverty, lacking economic opportunity and economic security. Shamefully, our children bear the greatest burden. In 2010, 22 percent, or one in five children, lived in poverty. That's in America. Poverty continues to hit communities of color much harder, as the facts show. In 2010, the poverty rate for whites rose to 9.9 percent. The poverty rate for African Americans rose to 27.4 percent. The poverty rate for Latinos rose to 26.6 percent. For Asian Pacific Americans, the 2010 poverty rate of 12.1 percent remained the same. This massive poverty crisis we are facing didn't happen overnight. Poverty rates began to rise during the Bush administration as 8 years of failed economic policy wiped out all of the gains made during the Clinton years.…”