Political Quotes

“I rise again today, as I've been doing every week, to sound the alarm on poverty in America. Twelve Members of Congress are or will be participating in the food stamp challenge, which is a nationwide effort to bring attention to the needs of the 45 million Americans who are receiving food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps. For 1 week, we lived on the food budget of the average food stamp recipient, or $31.50 a week, $4.50 a day, which means I spent on average $1.50 a meal. This is for 1 week. Let me thank Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Tim Ryan, Joe Courtney, Jan Schakowsky, Donna Christensen, Alcee Hastings, Keith Ellison, Jim Moran, Jackie Speier, Ted Deutch, Marcia Fudge, and Eleanor Holmes Norton for their participation and their commitment to drawing attention to the struggle of millions of hardworking families to put food on the table during very difficult economic times. We faced limited food choices, lacked access to fresh and healthy foods, and were repeatedly exposed to unhealthy and inadequate food choices that promote poor health, obesity, and hypertension. But of course, our week will end. I hope that every Member of Congress will stop for at least a moment and consider the millions of American families who will face these challenges each and every day until they can find a good job with a real living wage.…”