Celia Israel: “I thank my colleague. Mr. Speaker, Republicans and Democrats until this Congress have always agreed that the way you…”

“I thank my colleague. Mr. Speaker, Republicans and Democrats until this Congress have always agreed that the way you build an economy is by building highways, bridges, tunnels, and transit. With this Congress, Mr. Speaker, under this Republican Congress, we are not building; we are patching. As a result, the American people are sitting in more traffic, longer rush hours, with higher repair bills. Well, this is a choice, Mr. Speaker. Under the Republican plan, we can kick the can down the crumbling highway. We can patch through December, telling construction workers we don't know if they are going to work after that. We can fund the status quo. Or, under this plan, we can be big, bold, and fair. We have 6 years of work, a 6-year extension of the highway trust fund, $40 billion in jobs and construction. It is funded not by asking Americans to dig deeper into their pockets or take something from their paychecks. It is funded by telling America's corporations they cannot establish an address for themselves in the Caribbean in order to avoid paying their fair share of taxes right here at home. Mr. Speaker, the American people are fed up. They are sitting in traffic. They can feel their tires hitting the potholes. They are told we can't afford to fix those potholes because we don't have the money. They sit in longer rush hours. Meanwhile, corporations rush to the Caribbean to avoid paying their fair share of taxes to fix the potholes.…”