Political Quotes

“He is a lot like a lot of our farmers. They are staying in business, but they are living off their equity. He has his limousine service and his equipment is depreciating. But if he does not make a profit, pretty soon he will not be able to pay his employees and his equipment will wear out. We had a meeting in my district, and my colleague, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price), joined me several weeks ago. I remember distinctly we had two unemployed workers with us, really nice ladies. One of them worked for Midway Airlines. As a result of September 11, they had to shut down. We hope they will get back up, but she lost her job immediately. She had two small children. And she says, I want to go to work. She said, I need to work; I need the insurance. She had worked for something like 6 or 8 years for the company, and all she was asking was an opportunity to work. She was not asking for anything else. She said, I cannot make it with my two children; I cannot buy insurance. That is why it is so important to have it funded at a level when I am unemployed so at least I can cover my children. Another lady had worked for a textile firm 33 years, and she lost her job. She said you cannot imagine how you feel when you back up to the door and load up everything you have worked with for over 30 years in the back of that truck and carry it home with you and you do not have a job. She was not old enough, obviously, to retire on Social Security.”