Political Quotes

“Mr. President, at the end of a Congress, we all know how easy it is for just one Senator to block a bill. I rise today to express my great disappointment that we have been unable to overcome objections from just one Senator from the other side of the aisle who is blocking the passage of legislation called the Senior$afe Act that is designed to help protect our seniors from financial fraud and exploitation. This is a bill I introduced with my colleague, Senator Claire McCaskill, as a result of extensive hearings and investigations that we have conducted in the Senate Aging Committee. A companion bill passed the House on a voice vote. Nationally, as many as 5 million seniors may be victims of financial abuse annually. Stopping this tsunami of fraud has been one of the top priorities of the Senate Aging Committee. In the many hearings we have held on this issue, what we found is that scammers seek to gain the trust and active cooperation of their victims, who are usually older Americans. Without that trust and cooperation, their schemes would fail. Unfortunately, seniors often do not see the red flags that signal that fraud is likely involved in these sophisticated schemes. Sometimes seniors are simply too nice, too trusting. In other sad cases, they may suffer from diminished capacity. But just as often, they miss these flags because the swindlers who prey upon them are extremely crafty and they know how to sound convincing.…”