Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we heard a tremendous amount over the course of the past year about fighting for workers and working families. What does it take for a working family to thrive? It takes a good living-wage job, access to public education for children, and for those children to be able to pursue their dreams with affordable opportunities and education. It also takes health care. Take a profession like coal mining--far more dangerous than virtually any profession Members of the Senate have had in the course of their lives. Health care is an essential element both for the miner and for their families. So how is it that we are at this point right now in which many miners don't know if they are going to have health care beyond April of next year? They don't know whether this body is going to stand with them. They are in limbo. They are in a state of anxiety, and it is absolutely unfair. So we know, as tonight progresses, we are in a situation where we have an extension through April, but, as Joe Manchin has said in his fight leading this effort to necessarily secure health care for coal miners and as our incoming Democratic leader has said, this is going to be something that we are going to stand together for in this coming year. We are going to make sure their health care does not expire in April. This benefit has been earned through hard labor, over difficult years, in ways few of us can imagine, and we are going to stand with the coal miners in getting that benefit.…”