Tom Harkin: “I want to echo what the Senator from Massachusetts just said. If anything, this provision is the ultimate…”

“I want to echo what the Senator from Massachusetts just said. If anything, this provision is the ultimate anti-blue-collar provision that I have ever seen on the Senate floor. This strikes right at the heart of the Americans we ought to be here protecting today. There is a difference. There is a difference between a corporate executive for Xerox and someone who is out there working hard every day of their life on a construction job, in a factory, in a plant. There is a difference between a Senator sitting on this floor or a Member of the House and that worker who is out there on the line day after day, the women who suffer from carpel tunnel syndrome, the people who work in our packing plants. Try that on for size. Do that for 5 years, 10 years, 20, 30, 40 years of your life. There is a difference. Sure, if you are a corporate executive, you have nothing to worry about. If you are a Senator, you have nothing to worry about. But I will tell you, if you are a blue-collar worker out there and you have worked hard all your life, you have raised your kids, you have sent them to school, you are now 62, you are worn out, maybe you are not physically able to continue working. Have you ever thought of that? So they retire. They get Social Security. God bless them. But they can't get health care coverage. What this amendment does, it just sticks it right in their back one more time.”