Political Quotes

“one of the amendments I filed yesterday, along with Senator Stevens, was in relation to what I am calling the Denali Transportation System. I am disappointed the full amendment will not be part of the bill, but I am grateful for the efforts Senator Inhofe and others who were able to accommodate even part of it. As my colleagues know, the National Highway System we established in the 1950s not only brought benefits to individual States but to the country as a whole. It has more than lived up to its promise of greater access, an improved quality of life, and increased wealth for all Americans. Throughout the United States, a modern highway system connects virtually every single community in every single State--except one. The majority of Alaskan communities remain unconnected. Alaska has been left far behind the rest of the Nation, with a road system that is no system at all. If the highway system is the Nation's skeleton, Alaska is still missing its arms and legs. As a result, many Alaskan communities are punished with third-world conditions and an extraordinarily high cost of living, and the Nation as a whole is that much poorer because Alaska's tremendous natural wealth cannot be shared.”