Political Quotes

“I say to those who are opposing this minimum wage, that it is a sad day when we have reached the point when the U.S. Congress is so unresponsive to the reality of workers in America, so insensitive to what is really going on among workers in businesses across the United States. When the record is written about this Congress, and what it has achieved, I am afraid it will be reminiscent of General MacArthur's speech to a joint session of Congress over 40 years ago. He said, ``Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.'' Well, maybe--maybe--it is time for this Congress to fade away--this Congress, which has been unwilling to address the most basic issues in this country; unwilling to pass campaign finance reform; unwilling to pass a tobacco bill to protect our children who continue to be lured by those companies; unwilling to show initiative to protect Social Security when Americans say that is their No. 1 priority; unwilling to do anything about education, like the crumbling schools initiative of my colleague Senator Carol Moseley-Braun; unwilling to address a Patients' Bills of Rights when every American family knows how vulnerable we are when it comes to health insurance and the way doctors and hospitals are treated; and unwilling to address the most basic issue, the most basic issue of fairness, that the people who get up and go to work every day in America deserve a decent living wage.”