Political Quotes

“I want to point out to the body also, Mr. Chairman, that I have lived under the Davis-Bacon wage scale for years. I've met payroll for 28rac{1}{2} years--over 1,400 consecutive weeks. I've worked for a wage underneath Davis-Bacon wage scales, and I've worked in merit shop operations. I've worked in shops in the wintertime and on construction projects in the field before it froze up, from the spring to fall. I've been on all sides of this. I've been a laborer on the pipeline. I've been a heavy equipment operator. I've been an owner and I've managed people, and I've watched what Davis-Bacon has done at every single level along the way. It distorts the relationship between management and labor. It takes away from the individuals the ability or the willingness to contribute to the decision-making process. When the government comes in and says, 'on one side of the road, you're going to pay your laborers $14 an hour, but on the other side of the road you're going to pay them $21 an hour, and if they climb in the seat of a motor grader it's going to be $35 an hour, but if it happens to be a finish machine then it's going to be $40 an hour,' you watch your crews jockeying for the highest paying job there is. What happens if you sit back at a bird's-eye view? They will be scrambling over to climb onto the machine that's the least useful but that pays the most money.”