Political Quotes

“I rise with my dear friend and colleague, Senator McCain, to introduce legislation of vital importance to Americans who happen to be blind. Its purpose is simply to restore the Social Security earnings limitation for the blind to the same level as that for America's senior citizens. Mr. President, the English poet John Milton once said that ``To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.'' Over the past 20 years, blind Americans have made amazing progress in shouldering those difficult burdens. Today, millions of blind Americans have achieved more independent and rewarding lives for themselves. The legislation that we introduce today will ensure that this progress continues by restoring an important work incentive for close to 150,000 blind Americans. This bill would reestablish the identical earnings exemption threshold for blind and senior citizen beneficiaries under the Social Security Act, which had been the law from 1977 until just last year. Prior to 1977, blind people were overwhelmingly dependent on disability benefits. What's worse, many of them could not afford to work without risking the loss of the basic security that these benefits provided. However, in that year, we raised the earnings exemption for the blind to the same level as retirees--from $500 to $940 a month. That modest step encouraged millions of blind Americans to work by allowing them to keep more of what they earned.”