Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this cynical, partisan motion to recommit. The bill before us today is not a bailout. It is a backstop. It is a solution to a boiling point that we ignore at the peril of more than a million workers who are now faced with financial catastrophe in retirement. If we do nothing with this multiemployer pension crisis, taxpayers will pay the price. If we do nothing, our Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will tumble. If we do nothing, 1.3 million hardworking Americans will lose what they paid into their entire working life. To the teamster who has played by the rules, to the carpenter who is already seeing a drop in his monthly benefits, we are here today to do something. But the ringing irony, that the very people opposing this bill are some of the very people who rushed to vote to pass a tax relief act for the wealthiest corporations and the biggest banks, ballooning our deficit by $1.9 trillion. We scratch our heads and we ask, Why is it that you cannot lift a finger for the middle class? Today, we deliver for the American people, and we save the pensions of those who have never asked for anything. Take it from me, my friends, I know what it is like to be on the phone with the PBGC when the auto industry needed our help. I know what that means when they tell us that these plans will run insolvent by 2025.…”