Political Quotes

“The idea that someone would volunteer or be eager to get the benefits that, in order to get them, you have to have a stew of toxic dust in your lungs, so much that you can't breathe normally, and you cough. And when you hear that 9/11 cough in New York, everyone knows it. The idea that it's open-ended--no, it's actually a pretty close-ended program in the most final sense of the word, in that many people who have the illnesses that we are trying to treat with this legislation are dying. There are people in this Chamber who are watching these proceedings and those that are home who once upon a time were the most vigorous, fit people imaginable. And it was because of that vigor and that fitness that they went down to Ground Zero on September 11. They didn't ask to be chosen. They didn't fill out a form. They didn't even wear protective gear. They went down because they felt it was their obligation.”