Political Quotes

“I thank the distinguished gentleman from Georgia for yielding and for his tremendous leadership on this issue. Here in America, if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to provide a comfortable living for yourself and for your family; but for far too many American workers, that basic contract has been broken. Since the early 1970s, the productivity of the American worker has increased in excess of 285 percent; but during that same period of time, wages have increased by less than 10 percent. So the productivity gains of the American worker have not gone to the American worker; instead, they have gone to the privileged few, to millionaires and billionaires and to big corporations to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. That is the America that we are dealing with right now. Some may explain it as a result of globalization; some may say it is fully negotiated trade deals; some may say it is the outsourcing of good-paying American jobs; some may say it is the rise of automation. Certainly, all of those factors are implicated, but the decline in unionization has been a significant, if not decisive, reason that so many people have been struggling to achieve the American Dream. And now the Supremes, in their wisdom, want to give us another raw deal, rightwing hit to benefit the wealthy and the well-off to the detriment of hardworking Americans.…”