Political Quotes

“Sometimes in the Senate we deal with numbers that are a little too big for constituents and even for us to fathom. One number we throw around in Connecticut is the number $50 billion. That is the amount of money we need over the next 20 years to make the necessary improvements along our rail line in order to keep it in a good state of repair, never mind to do the expansions we so badly need to get our economy back and running in Connecticut. It is only basically to do all of the repair work that we need to keep trains running safely from Boston to Washington, DC. We need $50 billion to get that done. I give you that number because what we have learned today is that S&P estimates that the cost of this 2-week shutdown to the U.S. Government is $24 billion, half of what the northeastern States need to maintain in state of good repair the most important rail line to the Nation for the next decade. In 2 weeks we lost $24 billion to this economy. This is the same amount of money that it took to do the Big Dig in Boston and half the money that we need to do important improvements along the longest, biggest, most important stretch of rail line in this country--for nothing, for absolutely nothing. We are hopefully going to consent on a path forward shortly that will allow us to vote on a bill that essentially represents the same offer that has been on the table to both Republicans and Democrats for 2 weeks.…”