Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Senate bill before us today, which would award Dr. Muhammad Yunus a gold medal for his exceptional work in the field of micro-finance assistance to the most impoverished people around the world. As this measure notes, Dr. Yunus first tested his belief thirty-four years ago that very small-scale, low-interest loans to the ``poorest of the poor'' could have a major and positive impact on their lives. He leant $27 of his own money to 42 craftsmen and craftswomen in a small village in Bangladesh. He went on to establish the Grameen Bank, which created a model for providing on a larger-scale what we now commonly know as micro- enterprise loans. Today, it is estimated that such assistance--which is low-cost, targeted to those most in need, and expected to be repaid by its recipients so that it can be used again and again to help others--has positively impacted the lives of over 150 million people around the world. Dr. Yunus has shown us that innovative thinking such as this can result in major beneficial changes for those around the world who survive on less than one or two dollars a day in income. He has also shown that we don't always need to think in terms of huge amounts of assistance--or expensive agencies and contractors--to carry out such important work.…”