House Proceeding 03-26-09 on Mar 26th, 2009 :: 2:15:25 to 2:17:20
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2:15:19 to 2:15:25( Edit History Discussion )

Donna Edwards: conditions to rebuild our infrastructure for the 21st century. and you can only get that when

2:15:25 to 2:17:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Keith Ellison

2:15:26 to 2:15:46( Edit History Discussion )

Keith Ellison: workers are able to organize. so i'd yield to the gentleman from minnesota. mr. ellison: i want to thank the gentlelady from maryland, congresswoman edwards, you're doing a great job here, great servic getting the word out. i want to lend my voice and thank you, again, reminding everybody that we are here on the progressive message, the progressive caucus has a vision for america that includes

2:15:47 to 2:16:07( Edit History Discussion )

Keith Ellison: workers' rights. and we're talking about that today. and i just want to say as i begin to have to wind down, congresswoman, that i just want to leave with this thought. you and i know that this congress has been a buzz over the last week over the whole a.i.g. thing, right? we have been talking about a.i.g., a.i.g. and what have we been talking

2:16:08 to 2:16:28( Edit History Discussion )

Keith Ellison: about? these enormous bonuses these folks have been getting. $165 million in retention bonuses to people who work in the unit of a.i.g. that did all these fancy derivatives that kind of led to this tremendous risk to the american economy.

2:16:29 to 2:16:49( Edit History Discussion )

Keith Ellison: this kind of work executive pay, congresswoman, is not a new one. in fact, it was 1991 when i was a brand new lawyer just got out of law school in 1990 and i read a book called "in search of excess." and in this book it talked about executive pay, exorbitant

2:16:50 to 2:17:11( Edit History Discussion )

Keith Ellison: executive pay. 1991. this was -- i think i was 25 years old at the time. what's my point? my point is that during the same period of time we've seen flatworker pay. we've seen worker pay stay stagnant. we've seen people's unemployment rise recently, but

2:17:12 to 2:17:20( Edit History Discussion )

Keith Ellison: we've seen health care plans have higher co-pays, more of a premium every month and we've seen workers reall struggling,