David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, working people pay most of the taxes to support the activities of Government. Yet the activities of…”

“Mr. Chairman, working people pay most of the taxes to support the activities of Government. Yet the activities of Government that are most being chopped by this bill are those that help workers, that help the children and the families of workers by way of education, training, and health. Our Republican friends are evidently not satisfied that between 1980 and 1993 only 97 percent of all of the income growth that occurred in our country went to the wealthiest 20 percent of people in this society. The rest of the 80 percent in this society had to settle for sharing that tiny little 3 percent. And yet this bill will in fact make that situation worse. They think workers have too much power in the marketplace. In my view that is a joke. Yet their bill goes ahead and guts the ability of the NLRB to enforce laws to protect workers on everything from wages and hours to the minimum wage. It savages the ability of OSHA to provide a safe and healthy workplace; $1 out of every $4 that were present a year ago to defend the interests of workers in this society will be gone under this bill, $1 out of $4.”