Donald Norcross: “I thank Brendan--Representative Boyle--and Marc for putting together a Blue Collar Caucus just to remind ourselves what…”

“I thank Brendan--Representative Boyle--and Marc for putting together a Blue Collar Caucus just to remind ourselves what we should be doing here is focusing on jobs. Jobs, which is the best social program I have ever been with. I entered my professional life as an electrician, as an electrical apprentice. I went through the other 4 years of school. It was called an apprenticeship. I worked on bridges, refineries, pipelines throughout the Delaware Valley. I understood how tough it is sometimes for people to make it. When work got slow, we got laid off. We collected unemployment. Those are the struggles that men and women in our great country are going through each and every day. If anything, this last election cycle reminded us of that, that sometimes the dignity of being able to take care of your family, send your kids to school, and retire with dignity is the most important thing we can do. {time} 1815 I have seen firsthand what happens with minimum wage. They tend to think it is all a bunch of kids flipping hamburgers. Well, it is much more than that. It is a woman I spoke to, who had a child 8 years old, who had to work two jobs just to make sure that in the winter, when her daughter needed a coat for winter, that she could take care of her. And she recalled to us how badly she felt that her daughter's teacher for PTA wanted her to come in and help. She had to decide whether or not to keep food on her table or participate in her child's school.…”