Byron Dorgan: “As I walked over to the Chamber a few moments ago, it occurred to me there is almost never someone walking around this…”

“As I walked over to the Chamber a few moments ago, it occurred to me there is almost never someone walking around this building, or standing out in front of the building who is advocating on behalf of working families, saying my job is to be here to make sure the voice of working families is heard in the Halls of Congress. There are a lot of people with shiny shoes, suspenders, and Cohiba cigars here and they are paid well to look after the big interests of this country, and they do a great job, God bless them. But the fact is working families don't have so much influence, regrettably, in Washington, DC. They don't have people here looking after their interests. I am talking about those families in this country who know about second jobs. Why? Because they work second jobs. They know about second shifts. Why? Because they have the second-shift job. They know about secondhand, they know about second mortgages, and about second everything. Now they are worried about job security and about whether they will keep their jobs, about whether their jobs will be exported to China because they cannot compete with 33-cent labor.”