Political Quotes

“Thank you very much, Congressman Horsford, for that question and for laying the facts out. There's no way a family can survive on $23,000 a year in America, I don't care what region that they live in. Secondly--and Congressman Ellison is going to speak in a moment--the Progressive Caucus held a hearing, and we talked with low-wage workers, workers who are actually working for Federal Government contractors in our Nation's capital making $6, $7, $8 an hour. You know what? These are working men and women who need food stamps. They're working each and every day, 10, 12 hours a day. So when you look at what a cut like this would do, first, you have people who are making $6 or $7 an hour, living on $23,000 a year, family of four, and then you're going to cut their food supply. I mean, people are going to go hungry. We are going to see an increase in hunger both in rural communities and in urban communities in our country. In the long run, it's going to just cost us. If people just care about the fiscal impact--which I hope everyone in this body cares about, first, the human and the moral impact, but also the economy and the economic impact--you know, we're going to pay in the long run. So it's just wrong and it doesn't make any economic sense. There's no way people in this country, in America, the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, can survive off of $23,000 a year. We need to, first of all, raise the minimum wage. We need a living wage.…”