LArson: GOP Blind to America's Needs

WASHINGTON – Last week, the New York Times highlighted a rare, mysterious neurological disorder called Prosopagnosia – otherwise known as face blindness. Congressman John B. Larson (CT-01) thinks that the Times story may have stumbled on the reason Congressional Republicans have been so blind to the needs of middle-class and unemployed Americans:

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Full Transcript:

"This Caucus has reiterated a mantra throughout, which is that job creation equals deficit reduction.

"And we're here today with our sleeves rolled up prepared to work, as our Members have during this break, and will continue to do so, because we know that our task is to rebuild the middle class.

"We know that we have to reignite the American Dream, and we know how to do that. We know how to do that by investing in our infrastructure and by making things here in America, again.

"In my district just yesterday I met with the Greater Hartford Building Trades Council. We were at a school building. And at that school building we see what Americans face: the need to be able to compete in a global economy by having the best educated students and workforce in the world, and also the need to put people back to work. One school built in 1922 – in desperate need of repair – and more than 40 percent of the building trades unemployed in greater Hartford for the last two years.

"There is a great opportunity here. All we have to do is seize on the President's plan and put this country back to work. Some have said that our colleagues are just pure obstructionists – that they want to see this economy continue at a slow pace so that it will impact the rates of the President of the United States.

"It's a new year. We're going to give our colleagues the benefit of the doubt. That's why we're here with our sleeves rolled up and prepared to work.

"It has been suggested to me and confirmed by The New York Times, just last week in the Science section, that what may in fact be impacting our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is that they have prosopagnosia. Now that, for you out there in the audience, means this: it's a blindness that they have. It's a blindness that also works in a way that you don't recognize people's voices. How else can you not hear the plea of 14 million Americans that are out of work, who need to be put back to work?

"We're here, prepared to work, ready to go to reignite the American Dream, make things in America, and continue to have the greatest country on the face of the Earth."

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