Political Quotes

“I say to Senator Alexander, one of the ironies of this is that it was promoted as a way to help lower income families make ends meet better. But if you require employers to provide insurance to low-wage workers, the predictable response of an employer who has thin margins is to actually convert those full-time workers to part-time workers. This doesn't happen for the CEO or for the CEO's lieutenants, and it doesn't happen for middle management. The folks it happens most to are those lower paid workers. I once went grocery shopping in Baton Rouge, and a woman rung me up. The next day my wife sent me to another store to get something else at another store. The same woman was ringing me up. I said: I just saw you at that store, but now I see you at this store. She said--I am paraphrasing--my first employer reduced my hours, so now I have had to take a second job to make ends meet. Now, that is the personal story. But what the labor statistics show is that since the recession has technically ended, the hours worked per week have recovered for higher income workers, but as for the lower income workers, they have continued to suffer. The most vulnerable have been the most affected in terms of hours worked, but it is not just the most vulnerable, it is also the middle class. The New York Times wrote an article 2 weeks ago. The headline says it all: ``Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless.'' They quote a gentleman, David Reines from New Jersey.…”