Political Quotes

“this week, I joined with my good friends, Senator Lieberman and Senator Santorum, to introduce the Savings for Working Families Act of 2000. This important legislation would enable low-income working Americans to increase their savings and build assets, thus allowing them to enter and become a contributing part of America's economic mainstream and benefit from its unprecedented period of economic growth. Right now, despite the fact that the net worth of American families has increased dramatically over recent years, the net worth of families with incomes below $25,000 per year has actually decreased. As many as 20 percent of American families are ``unbanked''--meaning that they do not have either a checking or a savings account. This disparity has had a severe and damaging affect not only on the ability of lower-income Americans to obtain financial assets but it has drastically reduced the chances of the working poor to achieve upper, or even middle class status. Even more distressing is the impact this disparity has had on children and minorities: one-third of all American households, and 60 percent of African-American households, have zero or negative net financial assets and 40 percent of all white children, and a staggering 73 percent of all Black children, grow up in households with zero or negative net financial assets.”