Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in marking the 50th anniversary of President Johnson's declaration of a war on poverty. This war was being won for 16 years, but since President Reagan's election 34 years ago, the free-marketeers and their Republican Party proponents have pressed the war on the war on poverty. The results are heart-wrenching. The rich are getting richer, while millions of middle-income families have been thrown into poverty. In my State of Georgia alone, almost 17 percent of households are food insecure, according to the Half in Ten Education Fund. Eighteen percent of people in Georgia earn less than $23,492 for a family of four. Republicans blame the poor for being poor, and even worse, Mr. Speaker, they blame the 27.2 percent of children, Mr. Speaker, who are living below the poverty line in Georgia. Republicans who ignore the desperate pleas to extend SNAP and unemployment insurance programs are hurting the people I represent in Georgia and millions more throughout this great Nation. It is a shame. ____________________”