The Progressive Caucus Message Hour

Floor Speech

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.

Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I am KEITH ELLISON, here to claim the time.

The Progressive Caucus message hour, which comes to the House floor every week, week after week, with a Progressive message will be short tonight. We want to let our Republican colleagues know that. Tonight, though short, it will be a very potent and effective message because it is a Progressive message.

Obviously, everything these days is health care. Health care is a crucial issue, but it's important to understand that, from a Progressive standpoint, health care reform is part of an overall package of reform for middle and working class people in America.

How are you doing with your family budget when you see, over the last 10 years, that health care premiums have increased, that deductibles are increasing and that copays are increasing? How is it going when you see your neighbors are foreclosed upon and when the houses in your neighborhood are seeing a reduction in value? That's real wealth you're losing with this foreclosure crisis.

In a Progressive vision of this world, we see middle class people and working class people--people who are making only a little bit, who are making only minimum wage--who are actually seeing their wages rise, who are seeing their health care costs level off and go down, who are seeing their home values go up, and who are seeing the doors to the universities remain open so that young people can have real opportunities in this America.

We have a vision where everybody counts, where everybody matters, where we're not constantly looking for the next person to throw under the bus. With the Progressive vision, we know that it doesn't really matter what your economic station is in life. You still have an opportunity to do well in America. You still should have that opportunity. You should still have an opportunity to have your civil and your human rights respected. As we move forward in this health care debate, we must remember from a Progressive message standpoint that it is a part of a network of things that American middle class and working class people need--people of all colors, people of all cultures and people of all faiths.

The Progressive message: We don't believe that it makes sense to rail against and to demonize people who come from other countries. We welcome new Americans. We think it's a good idea. Immigration has been good for the United States.

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