Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to talk about this heartless and mean-spirited attempt by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to cut $40 billion from the SNAP program--the food stamp program--that ensures that children, seniors, and poor Americans can put food on the table. Earlier this year, I participated in a food stamp challenge. We agreed for a period of 1 week to limit our expenditure for food to $4.50 a day. That's about the average amount that a food stamp recipient receives for food. And so trying to eat on $4.50 a day was a mind expander and an eye-opener for me because it helped me see how fortunate I was to not be one of the many millions of people who rely on food stamps for their nutrition. During that week that I was on that food stamp challenge, I went around to a number of food pantries where people were lined up, White and Black, Hispanic and Asian, awaiting the food truck or the tractor- trailer to get there loaded with food so they could get some of it. People lined up several hours before the pantry actually opened just to get some food. So I can assure you that there are many people out there. And I spoke with many of them. I spoke with one woman who worked three part-time jobs that pay minimum wage. She was trying to take care of a family with that, and was still eligible and needed to have those food stamps. And so people have lost their jobs and have been offered and accepted new jobs after this economic meltdown caused by Wall Street. People lost jobs.…”