Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today over 15 percent of Americans live in poverty including 22 percent of our children. 46.2 million Americans and 16.4 million children struggle every day to survive in a system that is demoralizing and unfortunately does more to maintain people who live in poverty than to help them escape. Last year, 2.6 million Americans were added to the poverty rolls and 8.9 million have been added since 2007. This must change. That is why I am today reintroducing the National Opportunity and Community Renewal Act. This legislation puts forth some new ideas and will grant waivers to ten communities so they can test different approaches to combatting poverty. I am not saying this is the only path forward or the most suitable path forward. But we must begin somewhere and we must take a comprehensive approach. As Robert Kennedy once said when talking about tackling the poverty problem in our country, we must ``grab the web whole.'' Piecemeal approaches won't work. I know there are other Senators and Congressmen along with policy professionals and academics who share my concern and commitment to reducing poverty. I invite people to review this proposal. Let me know what you think and if you have other ideas to bring them to the table. It is long past time to reinstill our national commitment to the least fortunate. We must also acknowledge that there is not one answer to helping people out of poverty. That is why this legislation is important.…”