Political Quotes

“it is no great secret that our country today faces many enormously difficult problems. We remain in the midst of a very serious recession. Real unemployment is at about 15 percent. Our middle class continues to decline. The gap between the very rich and everybody else is growing wider. Fifty million Americans have no health insurance. Millions of young people are struggling, trying to figure out how they are going to make it into college and pay for their college education. But in the midst of all of those problems, I hope very much that we do not forget about the problems facing one of the most vulnerable sectors of our society; that is, senior citizens. We are an aging population. That is no secret. Today, and every day, some 10,000 Americans reach the age of 65. If we as a nation do not begin to address the very serious reality of an aging population, we are going to be in a lot of trouble that we are not anticipating. One of the issues we have to understand is that not only are we an aging population, but many of those people who are becoming 65 and older are dealing with issues of poverty. Incredibly enough, 20 percent of the seniors in this country are living on average incomes of $7,500 per year--$7,500 per year average income for the bottom 20 percent of seniors in this country. Frighteningly, and embarrassingly, more and more seniors in this country are literally going hungry.…”