Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. I rise, first of all, to thank Senator Donnelly for his leadership and my colleagues. I am speaking today on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people in Pennsylvania who currently rely or will rely upon a pension. The multiemployer pension program protects about 10 million workers and retirees in about 1,400 pension plans across the country. In Pennsylvania, that number is 230 multiemployer pension plans, with a total of about 910,000 beneficiaries. Without action, the full pensions of over 33,000 Pennsylvanians are at risk, as is the solvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. In 2017 the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation paid $462 million to Pennsylvanians whose pension plans had failed. That is about $5,800 on average. Democrats in the Senate have been fighting to preserve these earned benefits for our retirees for years, including our Nation's coal miners. The fight for our coal miners we have just half-won. We were successful in making sure that their promised healthcare benefits are there for them, but we still have work to do with regard to pensions. It is inexcusable that Americans who have earned these benefits have to worry, as some do, and they have been worrying for many years. We know what the tax bill did, among many things, for very wealthy interests. The tax bill that got rammed through the Senate in December of last year gave $13 billion in tax windfalls to our Nation's six largest banks.…”