Political Quotes

“I concur with a lot of what my colleague from North Dakota said, and I applaud his leadership on this whole issue of outrageously high energy prices. A few weeks ago, I sent an e-mail out to constituents in the State of Vermont, and essentially I said: Please write back to me and tell me what these outrageously high gas prices and oil prices mean to you. How are they impacting your lives? From our very small State of 630,000 people, we received, as of this date, some 900 responses. Nine hundred families wrote to me to tell me the impact these extraordinarily high gas and oil prices are having in Vermont. As you know, Vermont is doubly hit by these high prices because we are a rural State and people have to travel long distances to get to work, to get to the doctor, to get to the grocery store, and with the weather sometimes at 30 below zero, people spend a lot of money heating their homes. Madam President, $4-plus a gallon for home heating oil has a huge impact on their lives. What I would like to do in the time I have is simply read some of the e-mails I have recently received from Vermont. Let me be very clear in saying that while the e-mails came from Vermont, these e-mails speak for millions of people throughout this country, perhaps especially in rural areas. It is just amazing that at a time when poverty is increasing and the middle class is collapsing these high gas and oil prices have just taken many people over the edge.”