This is funny. Wednesday was the last day you can give money to John Kerry. In an effort to convince you that Kerry is worth a little of your money, here are some excerpts from a recent Kerry speech:
On Minimum Wage and Living Wage
"The minimum wage is the lowest it has been in America since Harry Truman was president in 1949 and we hear the same old arguments we've heard since 1949. And every time we've passed an increase in the minimum wage, America's done better, notwithstanding those arguments."
When I'm president, the first thing we're going to do is start to raise that minimum wage to $7 an hour and allow people in America to be able to work and get out of poverty for the work that they do. But it's not limited to minimum wage: you've got to start talking about a living wage that so many mayors are beginning to talk about."
On Health Care as a Right
"We're the only industrial nation in the world that doesn't yet understand health care is not a privilege for the wealthy or the elected or the connected. It is a right for all Americans and we're going to make it available to all Americans. And George Bush, he's had four years as president to offer leadership. He doesn't even talk about it. He doesn't even have a fake plan, ladies and gentlemen, which is normally where they are. He has no plan. And so we've got 44 million Americans who have no care and we have costs going up for everybody in the country! I'm going to make certain we put in place the principle that the health care that senators and congressmen give themselves and you pay for -- it ought to be available to every American."
On Disenfranchising African-American Voters
"Don't tell us that it's the best we can do [when] in the last election... ...2 million votes weren't even counted. Don't tell us that, when voters who were duly registered and they turn up to vote and they find out that their names have been purged wrongly from the list, or when they show up to vote and they're told, we don't have you registered because the registry makes mistakes. Don't tell us that people who are harassed and intimidated from going to the polls, something we thought we resolved in the 1960s and it still happens in the dawn of the 21st century! We can do better, and we will do better this time."
On Unemployment and Underemployment
"African-American unemployment is now at 10 percent, double the rate for whites. In New York City, 18 up to 30, 50 percent, the African-Americans are unemployed. We can do better! America's increasingly being underemployed. And while they're being underemployed, this administration's fight is not to create the new high-value added job that lifts people up. This administration's fight, unconscionably and wrongly, is to try to reduce Americans' ability to win overtime pay. And we're not going to lose a 40-hour work week in the United States of America."
On Economic Fairness
"If you look at the share in America -- workers shares in America of the national income is at the lowest level in American history. That's just stunning. I read that the other day and I just scratched my head, and I said, "What is going on?" And the spread between the haves and the have-nots is getting bigger. There are more working poor in shelters today. There are more working poor. There are more homeless. And you have to ask yourself: How can we be the richest country on the face of the planet and be pushing backwards against the right of an American worker to be able to actually do better in life?"
Copyright 2003-2004 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
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