On the recordJanuary 24, 2023
thank you for your leadership and your desire to continue to lead in our country. Everything I do here, everything that most of us do here, I think, should come back to the dignity of work--the idea that hard work should pay off for everyone, no matter who you are, no matter whether you punch a clock or swipe a badge, no matter if you are management or labor, no matter if you are self-employed, where you live, what kind of work you do. When work has dignity--by definition, the ``dignity of work,'' brought to us originally by Leo XIII, ``the labor Pope'' of 120 years ago--with the Presiding Officer's faith, he knows about Leo XII-- and brought to us by Dr. King--when work has dignity, people have a secure retirement. It means you count on Social Security and Medicare. It means we protect people's pensions. It means the VA continues paying benefits that you earned if you were exposed to Agent Orange or to these massive football field-size burn pits. It means people make enough money for retirement and for a rainy day. It is why in this body, just 2 years ago--in March, slightly fewer than 2 years ago--we saved the pensions of 100,000 Ohioans, tens of thousands in Virginia, a million around the country, people who worked their whole lives. They earned the pension and the peace of mind in retirement for themselves and their families. Think about what that means.…





