Political Quotes

“I appreciate Congresswoman Matsui managing the time. We've worked very hard on clean diesel issues and the like, so this is really appropriate to this debate though, because Amtrak uses big diesel engines. And what's happened in the Amtrak debate that we haven't heard yet, hopefully we'll hear it later on is, like, one of the biggest threats to Amtrak is the high cost of diesel fuel. In fact, the fiscal year 2007 budget for fuel was $125 million for Amtrak. The fiscal year 2008 budget for fuel for Amtrak is $215 million. Now, how are we going to pay for that? I know how they're going to pay for it. They're going to raise prices on these commuters. And there are some commuters who use Amtrak. But again, I'll quote the New York Times article that says 'the counties where motorists spend the highest percentage of their income on gasoline tend to be in poor, rural areas.' Amtrak doesn't go there. We don't have commuter rails. We have working trucks. We have big trucks. We haul feed. We haul beef. We haul pork. We need working trucks and they drive a large distance. That's why this energy debate is critical. And here's the problem. All we're trying to do is bring, what's the problem, what's the solution. What's the problem. What's the solution. Here's the problem. January 2001. $23 a barrel. January 2006, after the Democrats took control and promised to lower fuel prices, that's right here, where are we today? $123 a barrel. What does that do for gas prices?”