Political Quotes

“let me congratulate the Senator from Arkansas on her fine and important work on the Finance Committee. Let me also congratulate Majority Leader Reid for his leadership, and Senator Baucus, Senator Grassley, and the other members for taking the ball a significantly strong step forward as we deal with the economic problems facing our country. I think it is clear to the vast majority of the American people, if not to the President of the United States, that our country has some very serious economic problems. The middle class is shrinking. Tens of millions of Americans are working longer hours for low wages. Poverty is increasing. And there is a level of economic desperation among the lowest income people in our country that many of us have not seen for a very long time. As we speak, senior citizens in the State of Vermont are finding it extremely difficult to pay for their home heating fuel bills, which are soaring, as they are seeing record-breaking levels of the cost for home heating oil. Emergency food banks in the State of Vermont and throughout this country are literally running out of food because many low-income working people are simply, today, not being able to earn enough money to purchase the food they need for their families. Homeless shelters are running out of beds. We have some major economic problems, and the time is long overdue for this Congress to begin to address them.”