Political Quotes

“I want to congratulate my colleague, Senator Harkin, for his remarks. I certainly agree with him. I want to amplify a point Senator Harkin made. There was a frightening story in the New York Times today. I don't know that people have digested it, but the headline is ``Life Spans Shrink for Least-Educated Whites in the U.S.'' Generally speaking, the trend for life expectancy in the United States, and all over the world, has been going up. The goal of a good society and a strong health care system is to see that people live longer, healthier, and happier lives, but as a result of the devastating attacks in a variety of ways on the working class of this country, over a period of years--not just starting yesterday--this is where we are. Let me quote from this article. I hope people hear this because this is shocking stuff. I quote: The steepest declines were for white women without a high school diploma, who lost five years of life between 1990 and 2008. Their life expectancy went down by 5 years. This is astronomical. Going back to the article, it says: S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead investigator on the study, published last month in Health Affairs. What happened is between 1990 and 2008--an 18-year period--life expectancy for white women without a high school diploma declined by 5 years. The article states: White men lacking a high school diploma lost 3 years of life.…”