Political Quotes

“there is a line from a very popular song, ``Harvest for the World.'' It keeps asking the question rhetorically, why do those who pay the price come home with the least? When it came time to balance the budget this year, it was done at the expense of the men and women in uniform. They delayed their pay by 2 days. Again, for a Congressman, no big deal. For a young E-4, a young E-5 trying to take care of his wife and his kid, that is probably a weekend when baby formula does not get bought, or the Pampers do not get bought, and they try to make do as best they can. I listen to Members of this body say we have to give the senior citizens a COLA, and everybody votes for it. We have to give the retirees a COLA. Everybody votes for it. So if we are willing to reward people for what they have done, why are we not willing to reward people for what they are doing in some of the crummiest jobs in America? What this whole amendment is about is 17 cents an hour, the difference between the Republican proposal and the Democratic proposal. We are willing to give them that 17 cents a year sooner. If we want people to value work, then work must have value. I encourage my colleagues to vote for the Traficant amendment.”