Tom Carper

I think the primary role of government... is to create a nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation.

Abraham Lincoln used to say the role of government is to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.

Not a lot of silver bullets but a lot of silver BBs.

I like to say one of the major roles of government is to provide a nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation.

I would think that we need to look at those sectors, whether ports, inland waterways, aviation, and surface transportation where we have a user fee structure in place and try to raise those fees to match inflation over the years where we…

Senator Carper is very much in the leadership of saying, we have to pay for what we need, and let us find a way to do it.

We have to do something about it.

We have not kept up with the need.

Carper, Hon. Thomas R., U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware.

It is hard to have a nurturing environment if you do not have good transportation systems.

The congestion is very costly to our economy; it is costly to our public health.

One of the issues that I have focused on, my staff and I have focused a great deal on with some of our colleagues, is the issue of obesity.

But most importantly, and to Senator Wyden's point, they have someone they know whom they can call at the plan.

To one and all, welcome. Thank you for trying to help us and help us really better assist the folks whom we represent.

But so many bad things flow from being heavily overweight.

The Democratic leader in the Senate has called for an emergency caucus meeting to discuss the issues leading up to the dismissal of James Comey as our FBI Director and to discuss how we might move quickly to ensuring that a special…

For someone who is not the expert on this, AGC did great.

That would mean that the gas tax, what is it, 18 cents, is worth about less than a dime.

If you were giving us some advice as to how to raise some money for roads, highways, bridges projects as we look forward to filling--it is not the cupboard is bare, but there is a lot more demand, as you know, than there is money to meet…

To some extent, the increase in the percentage of highway projects receiving CATEX treatment results from the increasing emphasis given to preservation type projects within State DOJ budgets.

We need some revenue.

I think we are spending about--I want to say, roughly $56 billion a year out of Federal dollars for roads, highways, bridges projects.

Just use some common sense.

If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well.

I urge my colleagues to work with me in a bipartisan way to find these solutions.