Tim Ryan Quotes

No matter who you are, no matter what your color, creed, how you choose to pray or who you choose to love, that if you are an American - first generation or fifth - one who is willing to work hard, play by the rules and apply your God-given talents - that you should be able to find a job that pays the bills.

Very few of the rich are in the army except as officers. Our mission is to disenthrall just such men, to open up before them a brighter future for themselves and their children. Labor must be dignified in the south, and all must have an equal chance.

I'm going to lead a revolution for working people in America. This includes all workers: white, black and brown, men and women, gay and straight, urban and rural.

When I talk about 'working class,' I don't talk about 'white working class,'. I talk about 'working class,' and a third of working class people are people of color. If you are black, white, brown, gay, straight, you want a good job. There is no more unifying theme than that.

The promise of the American Dream requires that we are all provided an equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to our nation.

Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances.

President Obama is a principled man who has worked hard to put healthcare and a good education in the reach of millions of Americans and believes that everyone who works hard and plays by the rules, should have a fair shot at the American dream.

Working 40 hours a week used to mean a minimum standard of living and a foothold on the first rung of the economic ladder to the middle class.

Affirmative action is the most important antidiscrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination... Affirmative action, by all statistical measures, has been the central ingredient to the creation of the black middle class.

I know this: Secretary Clinton will fight for working families, and that's what I'm going to do as well.

I'm trying to stand up so that the middle class, the working class, can finally have a say. I put them as my No. 1 priority.

My mission is to raise incomes for hard working middle class families. If you work hard and do your part you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead.

For me, Barack Obama's election was a milestone of the most extraordinary kind. On the day he was elected I felt such hope in my heart. I thought we were seeing the beginning of a new era of equal opportunity across race and gender such as America had never known before.

Well, it's the last step of the civil rights movement: You know, wrap your hands around some money, right?

Some kind of affirmative action is important in a democracy and for economic competitiveness and national security. The Army was the first to realize that you had to have desegregation of a military to have it working properly.

Your performance gets you promoted. It doesn't matter if you're brown, back or white.

I felt like any other American kid. I already worked at a steady job as an ice cream scooper, but I didn't feel less in any way than my more affluent friends from school.

Together we will build an America where hope is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker.

It is of the highest importance to provide equal access to the labour market. Governments should act to establish equitable employment standards and penalise racial discrimination.

The minimum wage is not something that you want to stay on as a permanent basis. For example, if you have a minimum wage job, you don't stay there 20 or 30 years. You don't put your children through college working on minimum wage.

I don't want to have people brought in simply because they are black or Asian.

You know, I love all kinds of activism. I certainly think blacks deserve to have something whether it is affirmative action or an opportunity that should be opened up to them. But at the same time I believe that people of color are not the only poor people in America and all over the world.

No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.

Ten years ago I said, you know, my goal is to be able to get food on the table. What I'm trying to say by that is trying to create a vibrant, capable and effective middle class. The quicker and stronger that we can be able to do this, the easier it is for political reform to move forward.

We should try to ensure that everyone has a fair opportunity to find a great life. It's a quest that will require political will and ingenious policies. President Obama's proposed expansion of the earned-income tax credit goes in this direction, but we need more.