Political Quotes

“Thank you, Chairman Spratt. The number of jobs lost hits home--I think to all of us. Each of us probably have different experiences. I remember the day that a large corporation took over the corporation that my father was working for. And he had worked so hard. So he was called into the corporate offices and he was told-- well, he was just told to show up. We all assumed he was going to get a raise or a promotion because he had been working hard. This was during the 1950s. And they let him go because they said they were doing a corporate restructuring. We were waiting for him. He didn't come home until the middle of the night because he couldn't face us. Mr. Chairman, that is happening every single day, 20,000 times. That's the pace. 3.6 million jobs. Most of these are breadwinners. I suspect that over this Christmas vacation there are any number of parents who had to take their child aside and explain to them they were no longer going to be able to go back and finish out the last half of their academic year at college because they could no longer afford it. Or, imagine the mother and father sitting their children down and explaining that they had lost their home. They weren't sure where they were going to go. They would probably have to leave their school. We look at these numbers, and they are devastating. But I know that you are particularly sensitive, as Ms. Tsongas was as well, to the human face behind these tragic numbers.”