Bill Lee

You are truly bearing witness on behalf of the poor and the near-poor who are living on the edge in the wealthiest country in the world.

We have a moral crisis in this country. It is a crisis when 250,000 people can die every year because of poverty.

Environmental justice, clean air, clean water for them to thrive in a world at peace in which they can reach their fulfillment.

The recommendations are recommendations which this Committee should embrace.

We also must begin to repair the damage for the inhumane government-sanctioned institution of slavery, which continues to be manifested today in systematic and institutional racism.

I received the opportunities through many years of struggle by so many people and so many organizations who forced our government to--the war on poverty--to establish policies that would provide those opportunities.

I was able to buy a house because of a government policy that allowed people on public assistance to purchase a home.

You remind me today of Dr.--another one of Dr. King's speeches, which he gave at Riverside Church, when he talked about society's three evils: poverty, racism and militarism, which still loom large today in our own country.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Slavery was a government policy. The lack of civil rights was a government policy.

How is it that you can say the war on poverty failed, when it is politicians who de-funded that war?

We could reduce child poverty by 50 percent in the next decade.

Please, help us to fight back on this chained CPI effort, because it is wrong, and it will hurt the most vulnerable people.

This is not--we have a social safety net in this nation. It is being frayed, and it is being decimated, and hollowed out.

We need to take a look at what the problems are, and identify them.

Every nation will be judged by God for how it treats the least of these.

Woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their rights and make women and children their prey.

God did not make us poor. Greed and abuse and power make us poor.

The growing gap between the rich and the poor in this country is a direct result of policy decisions, not the immorality and the lack of personal work of poor people.

The Congress cannot succeed in our inside maneuvering without the outside mobilization.

We want to again thank the Chairman, and also call upon our Republican colleagues to help us with issues like raising the minimum wage, lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

Environmental justice is so important that we focused on in our last hearing.

Our children, our children, our children, their health, their education, the economic success--security of their families, and a safe environment.

We certainly should not have a budget that gives a tax break to the--83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent, while adding $2 trillion to the national debt.

Nothing brings more money to the treasury than investments in education and early childhood.