Political Quotes

“I join with my colleagues you have already heard from--Senator Cantwell of Washington State, Senator Stabenow of Michigan--and today I know other Senators will be coming to the floor to say: We want to finish the job. We want to finish the job that started 50 years ago when Lyndon Johnson introduced the first of three civil rights bills that were designed to change America. In the mid-1960s, there was turmoil. Change was in the air. People wanted equality. They were marching on the streets, they were pounding on the tables, and they were organizing in civil disobedience. Dr. King marched on Washington and Lyndon Johnson was laying the groundwork for the famous Civil Rights Act that would open the doors for minorities. But the very first bill he introduced was to guarantee equal pay for equal work for women. He did that as the first bill because he thought that would be one of the easiest to pass. Well, 50 years later we are still being redlined, sidelined, pink- slipped because we fight for equal pay for equal work. Every time we make an advance, they bring in the lawyers--the corporate lawyers--who then hide behind small business exemptions, and they fret on how it will wreck the economy of the United States. Well, I know what wrecked the economy of the United States, and it wasn't women wanting equal pay for equal work. That is not what brought us fraud, scams, and greed in the mortgage market. That did not cause the great collapse of the banks.…”