Political Quotes

“I urge all Senators who say that deficit reduction is important to them to join us and support the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act as reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Our bill will help us achieve nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction according to the estimation of the Congressional Budget Office, CBO. To those Senators who are interested in growing our economy, I say join us and support this bill that CBO expects will lead to hundreds of billions of dollars of economic activity, and help increase our gross domestic product by 5.4 percent when its full impact is reached over the next 20 years. If we are able to pass and implement a fair program reflective of American values, the beneficial economic impact should be even better. I think passing comprehensive immigration reform is the right thing to do and will be good for the economy and the country. One of the themes of the Senator from Alabama throughout committee consideration of the bill and now before the Senate is his contention that bringing undocumented people out of the shadows and into the economy as full participants will hurt the wages of American workers at the lowest end of the pay scale. I disagree because I believe that wages are already being depressed by the reality that undocumented workers are often forced to work for subminimum pay and that already depresses wages and job opportunities for other American workers.…”