Social Security Fairness Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, so much niceness headed toward this guy--it is killing me over here.

(Laughter.)

I want to clear the record, and I have a beef to settle with the good Senator from Pennsylvania.

I will tell you this: I consider myself a person of faith, and I think that Senator Bob Casey has done something very irreligious if I must say. I know he grew up as a Catholic. I grew up in a Baptist church. We are both Christians. We have very different religious faiths, but I have an issue with Bob Casey because, in the organizing Bible verse that I used to tell people was how I motivated my life, I come here, and he completely eviscerates my allegiance to this Bible verse.

So I am using this, and forgive me. And I might be rule XIX'd by somebody for maligning a colleague. But I am very upset that you have made me lose my religion a little bit, and I will give you an example.

If you know--a point of order? No.

(Laughter.)

Will the Senator yield? No, I will not.

(Laughter.)

Matthew 25 is really one of those Bible verses that has, for so much of my life, motivated me. You know, the Lord said: I was hungry, and you fed me; or thirsty, and you gave me to drink.

And it ends with this verse 40: And then you shall answer and say unto them, ``Verily I say to you, in so much as you have done to the least of these my brethren, you have done to me.''

The least of these is how--I thought that that was the calling of my faith--to do unto the least of these. And for 10 years now--11 years that I have been in the Senate, you have undermined that idea of doing unto the least of these.

Now, look, Bob--if I may call you that, sir--I came into the Senate thinking that was our job, but I have watched you for 11 years never see anyone as ``least.'' You have this way of looking at everybody and seeing their grandeur. You see people not as if they are in a lower station in any way, but you have a way of seeing people as if they are a reflection of the Divine Himself.

I had a very humbling experience in the past 7 days with the good Senator from Iowa. We were down in the basement of Dirksen when people from the disability community from Pennsylvania and all around America came to give you tribute. As I sat there welling up at the tributes to you from these extraordinary Americans, every person that spoke and that I spoke to afterwards told me that you saw them; that you were a person who recognized their humanity, who recognized their strength, who saw their character, capabilities; and that you were not doing to any least but that you were elevating everyone and this Nation in the process.

When you remarked about the little lobbyists, you pointed out how powerful they were in saving healthcare for all Americans.

So I want to tell you, in my farewell to you after your speech, that when I was coming out of college, my greatest hero in America was not a Senator or a politician; it was Marian Wright Edelman. I thought that should be the calling of this country, to focus on children.

I love what Marian Wright Edelman said:

So much of America's tragic and costly failures to care for all of its children stems from our tendency to distinguish between our children and other people's children--as if justice were divisible.

I see this framing that has made humanity suffer for thousands of years--those who framed humanity in us versus them. You have this superpower to only see just us. It is not your family and my family; we are family--to try not to sound like a famous song.

Somehow, my friend, you make real the words of one of my favorite poets, Gwendolyn Brooks, who simply said:

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.

I look up to you, Bob. I see in you--if you ask me what is the difference between a Hollywood heartthrob--or what does Bob Casey have in common with a Hollywood heartthrob, I would say, nothing at all.

(Laughter.)

You are not sexy. You are not glamorous.

(Laughter.)

My church tradition was, you had charismatic leaders in the pulpit giving great speeches. You must have gone to a very boring church.

(Laughter.)

But somehow you made me aspire to know in the Senate the difference between celebrity and significance, the difference between a showhorse and a workhorse, the difference between some nobility that you feel that you are reaching out and reaching down to help others, to humbling yourself before God's creations.

I end with this framing: Marian Wright Edelman inspired me at the beginning of my career, and the way you have focused on children inspires me amidst my middle-age years as a Senator. I still am inspired by people who care about kids. That is why you have been one of my greatest heroes.

So to steal from Chris Coons, who is the one person, I think, who knows Swahili in this Chamber, I would like to end with some Swahili words.

The Maasai warriors have this incredible tradition. These are the people who are most valued in their defense of those in the village who might not be able to defend themselves, who are powerful in their fierce fighting capabilities and fight for those who are powerless.

When they are out and about, they have a greeting that they say to each other, and the greeting, if I am pronouncing it right--and Chris Coons will correct me later--is ``Kasserian ingera.'' This is the greeting of two warriors. When they see each other, they greet each other: ``Kasserian ingera.'' The response is ``Sepati ingera,'' which means--one warrior says to the other ``How are the children?'' and the response of two warriors is ``The children are well.'' This is the indicator for the Maasai people of what the strongest, what the most powerful, what the fearsome fighters are most focused on, which is the children.

You, my friend, are one of the greatest warriors I have ever served with. I know your heart. I know your moral compass. I know how you live your faith every single day and how much you have deepened mine.

In the words of the Maasai, I have two words to say: ``Asante sana''--thank you very much.

(Applause.)

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