Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today as well to talk about pensions, as so many of my colleagues have been--and not just talking about but acting to advance legislation with regard to pensions. As we have heard today--and we will keep saying this because it bears repeating--pensions are a promise. They are a promise of a secure retirement. When a worker enters into that promise with a company, when the Federal Government is involved, we have to make sure we keep the promise to workers, just as we did a couple of years ago, after a lot of hard work, to make sure healthcare was there for coal miners who were retired. Pensions are an issue that both Houses of Congress have a responsibility to act on. The House passed the Butch Lewis Act 3 months ago, but like a lot of legislation that has come from the House, it is sitting in the Senate day after day, week after week and in this case 3 months--3 months-- since passage in the House. It is time for the U.S. Senate to have a vote on the Butch Lewis Act. In Pennsylvania, and I know this is true of several other States, we are talking about coal miners, teamsters, bakery and confectionary workers who, through no fault of their own, are seeing their hard- earned pensions threatened. Failure to act could result in devastating economic consequences across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and across our Nation.…”