Political Quotes

“I sometimes wonder if the leadership of this House and the President of the United States understand the pain that is being felt by people throughout this country. I can only speak for my State and my district, but Ohio is part of the heartland of this country. It is a State that I think is a microcosm of the larger Nation. We have got large cities such as Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Cincinnati and Youngstown. We have the urban areas. We have large agricultural operations. We have got a huge part of Appalachia that is contained in Ohio in small towns. What I am trying to say is, I really do believe that, because of the State and the district that I represent, that I have an understanding of the kind of pain and struggle that people are encountering today. With regard to the loss of living-wage jobs, many of the jobs being created to replace the manufacturing jobs pay 35 percent or less than the jobs that have been lost, and these new jobs oftentimes do not provide the kind of health care coverage. So there is a lot of pain throughout this country, and I just sometimes think that the President, coming from a privileged background as he did, and I do not fault him for that, but sometimes I wonder if he actually knows what life is like for someone who has an income of $13,000 or $15,000 or $16,000 a year and is trying to pay bills and raise kids and especially if they do have medical problems.”