Political Quotes

“I rise to offer an amendment to increase the Federal minimum wage from a starvation wage of $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour over a 5-year period. As I think you know, Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 2007. The result of that is that half of our people are now living paycheck to paycheck, and many, in fact, are working for wages that are much too low in order to take care of their families. So, to my mind, the American people in poll after poll and State after State understand that we have to raise that minimum wage to a living wage of 15 bucks an hour. I intend to do everything that I can to make that happen, and I will be offering that amendment this morning. Madam President, before I do that, let me begin my remarks by explaining why this reconciliation bill that we are debating today, the American Rescue Plan, is so enormously important that it must be passed and must be passed as quickly as possible, in my view. This legislation is the most consequential and significant legislation for working families that Congress has debated for many, many decades. Now, why is that? The answer is that, as I think all Americans know, the last year that we have gone through has been, in so many ways, the very worst year in our lifetimes. That is what it has been.…”