Political Quotes

“I mentioned yesterday on the Senate floor I spent a great deal of time in deep southern Illinois where some devastating and fatal tornadoes hit last week. As I said then and will repeat briefly now, the amazing outpouring of voluntarism and support from people far and wide was inspiring to me. It is great to know that, just as I had hoped, the people in my State rallied to help the victims. There were formal organizations such as the American Red Cross and informal organizations such as Operation Blessing which brought together churches from all over the area. There was a Methodist church from Carrier Mills with about 20 of their parishioners. Some were children with rakes doing everything they could to help clean up the mess. It was inspiring to see that. I was happy for that. I will tell you that in addition to the tornado issue we faced, the one thing that hit people between the eyes in Illinois this last week was gasoline prices. I was in the suburbs of Chicago on Friday evening and saw a gas station with regular gasoline for $4.09. I saw some lower prices over the weekend, but that was the high watermark or high gasoline mark in my State that I observed. People are very sensitive to this. Gasoline prices literally affect the lives of people individually and families as well. They also have a direct impact on business.…”