Political Quotes

“Again, I rise to bring attention to the Crisis of Poverty in America. As a founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, in 2008, I was proud to introduce H. Con. Res. 198, which committed the House of Representatives to setting a goal of cutting poverty in half in ten years. I was proud that the House passed my resolution unanimously. I hope that together this Congress can take the first steps toward that goal. The Crisis of Poverty in America is nothing short of a national emergency and we must begin to act like it. The U.S. Census recently released their supplemental poverty estimates which confirms what every other survey and report has shown, that communities of color continue to face tragically higher rates of poverty than their white counterparts. 27.4 and 26.5 percent of Black and Hispanic communities suffer under poverty respectively when compared to the 9.9 percent rate of their white counterparts. This is no accident, rather the direct result of a long history of disparity and a lack of economic, educational and entrepreneurial opportunity in our communities. We know that this disparity is reflected in the rates of unemployment, in the ranks of the uninsured, in the impact of health care disparities, in education, in income and in the already vast and expanding wealth gap.…”