Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleague and friend. This has been a bipartisan piece of legislation, and we just need a little bit more help. I think we are going to get there. Let me just paint the picture very quickly for everybody of what we are talking about--the energy for this young country in the early 1900s. The energy was needed to build the country. Then we had the industrial revolution, if you will. Then we had World War I, and then we had World War II and we needed the domestic energy in order to defend ourselves. From 1900 to 1946, these were people who were down in the mines. They would work hard, and they would provide the resources we needed to win the wars, to build the industrial revolution, and to build the middle class. They got no pensions, no benefits. Here is one personal story. In 1927, there was a young man who had four children, and his wife was expecting her fifth. It was Christmastime 1927. Have you ever heard the words of the song: ``Sixteen tons, what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt.'' Tennessee Ford wrote that song. ``I owe my soul to the company store.'' That was the fact. That was the absolute truth. From the paycheck at the end of the week, there was nothing left. They owed their soul to the company store. There was no money to take care of their family, no pension, no retirement plan, no health care as far as giving you the health care that you and your family would need to stay healthy. This is what happened.…”