Political Quotes

“That is right. First, the points that the assistant majority leader was making about the bipartisanship has been exactly right. What is most--not discouraging but perhaps the most disappointing part of this is even as recently as 2007, when President Bush signed this bill--it was my first month or two in the Senate when we passed it. It was a big bipartisan vote in the House. I don't remember exactly the numbers in the Senate. Many Republicans joined. I believe almost every Democrat or maybe every Democrat--but it was gladly signed by the Republican President of the United States. From the time of the minimum wage, when Senator Hugo Black sat at this desk and helped to write the minimum wage law and President Roosevelt signed the bill, for all of these decades the minimum wage in fits and starts has kept up with inflation--most of the time--until the 1980s. It has been signed on by people from both parties; the same with the extension of unemployment benefits that we discussed, this extension of unemployment benefits, social insurance. They pay in when they don't need it. When they need it, they can take money out of the social insurance fund and receive unemployment benefits if they can't find a job. These are very tough times. Some of my colleagues, I don't think, understand sometimes how tough a time it is for so many families.…”