Our Founding Fathers would shudder to see how easily forces outside the mainstream now seem to effortlessly push some Senate leaders toward conduct the American people don't want from their elected leaders: Abusing power. Inserting the government into our private lives. Injecting religion into debates about public policy. Jumping through hoops to ingratiate themselves to their party’s base, while step by step, day by day, real problems that keep American families up at night fall by the wayside here in Washington. |
Our government has a simple task: recognize our nation’s real problems, and address them in a manner that reflects the priorities of the American people. It sounds simple, but it’s not happening today, and I know you’re as frustrated with Washington as I am |
Our military deserves leadership that matches their service and patriotism. Getting our troops the pay raise they deserve is the very least we can do to show how much we value everything they do for us. |
Our purpose now is to reclaim democracy itself. We are here to affirm that when Americans stand up and speak their minds and say America can do better, that is not a challenge to patriotism; it is the heart and soul of patriotism. |
Politics has always been the art of the possible. Today it's too often the art of the probable - tinkering around the edges without any greater vision, without a sense of optimism and imagination. |
President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second, |
Remember the hours after September 11th when we came together as one to answer the attack against our homeland. We drew strength when our firefighters ran up stairs and risked their lives so that others might live; when rescuers rushed into smoke and fire at the Pentagon; when the men and women of Flight 93 sacrificed themselves to save our nation's Capitol; when flags were hanging from front porches all across America, and strangers became friends. It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us. |
Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate. |
So much promise stretches before us. Americans have always reached for the impossible, looked to the next horizon and asked, "What if?" |
Social Security is truly a test of our values as Americans. Social Security is a fundamental promise that lifts half of our seniors out of poverty and helps millions of disabled Americans, widows and orphans. We owe Americans a better debate than we're having today. It's about time we do everything we can to keep the promise of Social Security. |
Someone has to die so that President Nixon won't be, and these are his words, 'the first President to lose a war. |
Still, year after year strong mercury rules fail in Washington under pressure from corporate interests. Why? Not because the risks of mercury poisoning aren’t real. No, lobbyists for the big industries just say they can’t afford to make changes. |
Supporting the troops means paying attention to their needs both in the field and at home. It means understanding their lives both as warriors fighting for our nation, and as husbands and wives, parents, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters struggling to take care of their families. |
That is what Americans do. We face a challenge -- no matter how great -- because we know that on the other side there is always hope. |
The Administration’s willingness to consistently abandon the truth has done great damage. Americans are less willing to listen – less likely to trust or take anything that is said in Washington seriously. |