Political Quotes

“And we can't wait. We cannot wait. I'm just going to toss out two more statistics here. The top 1 percent of Americans in 1974 had about 9 percent of income of all sorts--capital gains, interest, dividends, as well as earned income, about 9 percent. In 2007--that was 4 years ago--they had 23\1/2\ percent. So you've seen the income of the very few at the top grow extraordinarily from 9 to 23. It's probably up to 25 or 27 percent this year. The top one-tenth of 1 percent--this is 15,000 families in America--have raked in more than $1 trillion of income in 2009; just 15,000 families, $1 trillion of income. Yet, when the Senate took up the bill to provide about 2 million jobs for America to be paid for by these men, women, and families that have had this extraordinary growth in their income, just a small percentage of a surcharge, 5 percent surcharge on that additional income, the Republicans in the Senate refused to pass that bill. So 280,000 teachers are not going to get a job, 100,000 police and firemen will not be back on our streets protecting us, and $50 billion of construction programs will not be built, 35,000 schools will not be renovated, and all across this Nation the pain of the middle class will continue. It's time for us to have a better deal for America. The American Jobs Act can do that. And I think it can help Ohio in the central part. Ms. Kaptur, if you would care to join us, thank you so very much.…”