Political Quotes

“We just heard a rather strong plea from one of my Republican colleagues about the transportation program and whether Democrats and Republicans should continue to fight about who did what when or didn't do it. This amendment is something that we all ought to agree to. This amendment is something that both Democrats and Republicans should be supporting. This amendment is about American jobs--not foreign jobs, not about shifting our jobs overseas, but rather about bringing those jobs back home. This amendment is about making it in America. This amendment is about no longer allowing our tax money to be spent on foreign-made equipment but, rather, to require that our tax money be spent on American-made equipment so that there will be American jobs. This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. This is an all- American issue. This is about making it in America. It simply says that the current 60 percent requirement is insufficient and that we ought to have a higher requirement of 85 percent. And I will argue strongly--and I think correctly--that 85 percent is achievable. I'll give two examples: In a recent contract for the new BART trains, the Bay Area Rapid Transit trains, one bidder--a French company, Alstom--said that they could build those trains at 95 percent. A second bidder--foreign, Bombardier--said they would do it at 66 percent. Unfortunately, BART decided to go with the 66 percent because it was a couple of percentage points cheaper.…”