Political Quotes

On the recordFebruary 10, 2016
the most important words in our Constitution are the first three words of that document: ``We the People.'' These are words that the authors put in supersized print to tell us that this is what our government is all about--and also, what it is not about. They did not start out this document by saying that we are a government to serve the ruling elites. They did not establish this Constitution to serve the titans of industry and commerce. And they did not write our Constitution to serve the best off, the richest in our society--quite the contrary. The genius of America was a government designed, as President Lincoln so eloquently summarized, to be ``of the people, by the people, and for the people.'' This Senator will be rising periodically to address issues that affect Americans across our Nation. It is important to a government of, by, and for the people to address issues that we should be addressing in this Chamber. Today I will use this time to talk about the challenge we face in climate change. Last month, scientists reported that 2015 was the single hottest year on record. NASA says that this past year was a full 0.9 degrees centigrade. That is well over 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the average during the 20th Century. Moreover, it rose significantly warmer from 2014, which was the previous hottest year on record--0.23 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than 2014. That is an unexpectedly massive increase in the challenge of global warming.…
Said by
Jeff Merkley
Democratic · Oregon
Source
govinfo.gov
Feb 10, 2016

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