Political Quotes

“Mr. Tonko, thank you very much for carrying on; and, Mr. Ryan, thank you for your insight into what is so obvious. The American people do not want their rights taken away from them. They have the right of collective bargaining; you're quite correct about that. Excuse me for having to step out. My constituents from California were here in town, and interestingly enough, they were talking about one of the jobs programs that we really need to do. I represent the central valley of California, the great California Delta, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the west coast of the Western Hemisphere, and there's always been severe flooding problems in that area. So they were asking about how are we going to fund the necessary flood projects. It's been a long, long history of the Federal Government through the Corps of Engineers supporting the construction of levees and other flood protection devices. But all of that seems to be ramping down as this mania of cut, slash, and burn the budget occurs around here. Now, the President offered the American Jobs Act; and in the American Jobs Act, there's $50 billion for infrastructure, part of which is water systems, sanitation systems, road transportation systems, but also flood control systems--desperately needed in our area. We could probably employ a couple hundred thousand construction workers immediately if somehow this House were to pass the American Jobs Act.…”