Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last week I met with Rita Lewis of Westchester, OH, in southwest Ohio. She was here to testify in front of the Senate Committee on Finance in honor of her late husband Butch. Butch worked as a trucker for 40 years with the promise that the pension he earned would be there to care for his family after he retired. I would also add that Butch had been drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates to play baseball some 45 years ago. Instead, he enlisted to go into the U.S. Army and on to Vietnam. He was injured and could never play baseball again competitively. He came back and became a trucker and joined the Teamsters. As I said, he worked as a trucker for 40 years with the promise that the pension he earned would be there to care for his family after he retired. But for Butch and Rita and thousands more Ohio retirees, that promise is under threat. Truckers and mine workers in Ohio and across the country are facing crippling cuts to the benefits they have earned. The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act that Congress passed 2 years ago allows pension trustees to propose massive cuts to the earned benefits of retirees when a plan is running low on funds. This is disgraceful. If a pension fund is in bad shape, it is our job to fix it, not break promises to American workers who have worked their whole lives to earn that pension. I believed that 2 years ago when I voted against that law which allowed these proposed cuts, and I believe it more strongly now.…”