On the recordNovember 1, 2017
I think it is appropriate this morning to rise to share my passion and my love for this country, but also my frustration. I will use this graphic to set the tone for my remarks this morning. Although the Republican tax proposal will be introduced tomorrow, I believe, if you look at this graphic and the headlines, it says that 80 percent of the tax relief will not go to you and you and you and to the American people, or maybe even staff and Members who are here who are Americans, salaried individuals; it will go, 80 percent, to the 1 percent of Americans. Now, I am not going to talk about the tax legislation this morning. I want this to be a symbol of the wrongness of the direction of this country and the leader who leads this Nation. We are going down a wrong path. Many of us thought we had come together in unity, we had overcome the divisiveness because we were different, we had recognized the beauty of all of us, rural citizens in West Virginia, Ohioans in the mountains of the Appalachian area, Midwesterners, Southerners, Northerners, Westerners, Far West, immigrant and nonimmigrant. But, unfortunately, in 2016, although some lost and some won, as we moved toward a new administration with the hopes and dreams of those who had voted, we looked for the unifying of what I know that all Presidents have done. It has been a privilege of mine to work with President William Jefferson Clinton, who didn't have an easy time but sought to unify the country.…
