Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady for yielding, and I thank her for her leadership. I want to thank the Congressional Black Caucus, which has raised this issue to a new height of not only visibility but of hope. Emanuel Cleaver, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told a wonderful story in our caucus the other day. He said there was a little boy and his dad, and his dad was reading the paper. The little boy scratched his hand, and as he did so, it obviously hurt. He went in front of his dad, shaking his hand. He walked to and from his father, and his father kept reading the paper. Finally, his father put down the paper and said, ``Son, I know you scratched your hand, but there's nothing I can do about it.'' And the little boy looked at his dad and said, ``You can say, `Ouch.' '' You can understand the pain that I am experiencing. You can understand the pain that losing a job is causing me. You can understand the pain of a home that is lost because the mortgage cannot be paid. You can understand the pain of a family, living in a home, who has seen the value of that most important asset of theirs dwindle and be reduced so that the mortgage payment they're paying is more than the value of the home in which they live. The Congressional Black Caucus did two things: It said, ``We hear and we say, `Ouch.' We understand the pain you're experiencing. We feel your pain.'' But if all we do is empathize and feel pain, that's not enough.…”