Bill Clinton: “First of all, we have fully funded for 2 years in a row now the ISTEA program, the intermodal transportation program…”

“First of all, we have fully funded for 2 years in a row now the ISTEA program, the intermodal transportation program that was adopted several years ago, to make sure we can push the money out more quickly. Secondly, I have now our people studying, with the benefit of folks from all over the country who are experts in transportation investment, what other options we have, short of some big tax increase which I don't think we can enact, to increase the funding flowing to infrastructure investments, and especially to road and bridge improvement. These things, by the way, create a lot of jobs in the economy, and they're basically good-paying jobs. And they often go to people who otherwise couldn't get them. And they dramatically increase the society's productivity. Many of the Asian countries that we're competing with that have far higher savings rates are spending massive amounts of money on fast trains, on new airports, on major new transportation systems. So it's a big issue in terms of our long-term economic health. And I believe--keep in mind we're keeping a pretty fast pace here. I had to work on the economy first and then pass the education programs. And now we're working on the health care and the crime bill.”