Political Quotes

“let me say to my dear friend from New Jersey, I appreciate his support so much. He has been right with me from day one, basically for the working men and women of this country but, most importantly, for the miners who have given us the country we have had today. I have been doing this for quite some time now. It is nothing new. This is not new to anybody. This has not been sprung on somebody at the last minute, what we are fighting for and what we are trying to do. As of October, we had over 16,000 of our retired miners and a lot of elderly women--widows whose husbands have passed away--who were notified they would be losing their health care benefits December 31 of this year. We have been working for a permanent fix called the Miners Protection Act, and if that bill were brought to the floor today, it would pass. We have all of the Democratic caucus--all 46 of us--and we have at least 15 who have committed to voting for it from our Republican colleagues, but that is not to be. That is not going to happen. We have been working everything we can. We have gone through regular order. That means it has been to the Finance Committee. It has gone through and been debated and vetted, and it came out of there with an 18-to-8 vote--very strong in a bipartisan way. Now what do we do? We are not going to get a vote on the floor. We thought, well, let's attach it. The Cures Act came over, and it is a health care act.…”