Political Quotes

“Thank you very much for laying out the thematics as well as the past history. Our theme in the Democratic Caucus here in the House is one of making it in America--once again, going into Target, going down to the local automobile dealership, and finding products that are made in America. The great strength of America, historically for the last 150 years, has been its manufacturing strength, but we need to understand that, in the last decade, we have seen the hollowing out of the American manufacturing industry. In 1999, there were 17,383,000 Americans working in manufacturing. In the decade that followed, more than 6 million of those jobs were lost, and we saw the hollowing out of American manufacturing. That's the strength. It also happens to be the middle class. So our theme is ``make it in America.'' As you say, if America is going to make it, we must, once again, make it in America. Manufacturing matters. Let me put up here on the board why it matters to the American public. What has happened in the last decade has been a skewing of the economy, the great unshared prosperity of America. If we look at the bottom fifth of the population, these are the poor. They've seen a $200 annual increase in their well-being. For the next fifth, 20 to 40 percent, they've seen just under $10,000. As you go up, if you look at the top 10 percent, $300,000. If you look at the top 1 percent of Americans, what has happened with them? Their wealth has grown by over $5,978,870.…”