Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady from West Virginia. Thank you also for your tireless advocacy for coal as we are here fighting the war on coal. It's interesting. I remember when I was attending college at Wheeling Jesuit University. Oftentimes, for charitable activities, we'd go into the mountains of Appalachia and help families where coal mines had shut down because they were played out, and we'd seen the incredible poverty there. We also know that, over the last century, miners toiled for years in those coal patch towns and tried to make things safer, and they accomplished that. They worked for better wages, and they accomplished that. Now they're fighting for their very existence and their jobs and livelihoods. To add to what you're saying about the jobs here, this is not just coal miners. It's the manufacturers who make the longwall equipment-- the continuous miners, the rails, the wire, the ventilators, the elevators, the safety equipment. They are fighting for their jobs. It's the railroads, the trucks, the barges, the workers who make the rails, the hopper cars, the barges, the trucks who are there, fighting for their jobs. Where will they go? Really, this is not just an attack on some of the power plants. We may lose 175 or so initially. The goal is to shut down 400 power plants altogether. What will happen then?…”