Political Quotes

“when I think of Senator Byrd and all of our great memories of him, it reminds me of how important it was to him to understand what people are going through in their lives--in this economy, certainly. I know if he were here, he would be on the floor, speaking about the importance of helping people who have lost their jobs--people who, through no fault of their own, have gotten caught in this economic tsunami, who find themselves maybe one step away from losing their house after they lost their job, probably lost their health insurance. Maybe they are in the midst of foreclosure right now because they lost their job and cannot pay their house payment. These are families who are counting on us to understand, as Senator Byrd always did, what it is like to be a middle-class family, a working family, where the breadwinner has lost their job or the breadwinner can no longer bring home the bread--the food, gas for the car, pay the electric bill--because they have lost a job. We know there are five people today looking for every one job that is available. That used to be worse. It used to be six people looking for every one job. We are beginning to see things turn. When President Obama took office, as we know, we were losing about 750,000 jobs every month. By focusing on the recovery, by investing in people, by investing in making things in this country, by focusing on job training as well as helping people without jobs, we have been able to turn that around.”