Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield the gentleman from Oregon an additional 1 minute. Mr. DeFAZIO. This is Kansas and Oklahoma. This is Kansas before we had the Eisenhower--by the way, a Republican--National Highway Program. They built their turnpike. Oklahoma said they would build theirs. They didn't. They were out of money. They didn't build it until they got an 80 percent Federal match. So let's go back to the good, old days. We are going to devolve the obligations of putting together a 21st century transportation system in this country, knitting our country together, getting rid of congestion, moving people and goods more efficiently, but we are going to do it on a State-by-State basis. That is nuts. I just can't believe this. Then, there is another little trick. The chairman of my committee wants to privatize the airspace in the United States and reduce the ticket tax that pays for air traffic control. That would be a $10 billion windfall to the airline industry, because they will raise prices. Then they are going to charge you a head fee to get on the plane. Even better, it creates $100 billion of new deficit. So this nifty little thing here contains a reserve fund of $100 billion to try and make up for the fact and hide the fact that they are cutting $100 billion of taxes that pay for the current system. How are you going to pay for the next system? The airlines will determine that, not Congress.”