Political Quotes

“Absolutely. This morning, to prepare for offering this unanimous consent request--which I will do in a very short period of time and ask for a couple of hours of debate tonight and then tomorrow--I spoke to the leader of the building trades council for the United States of America. He was very strong in his words to me about how disappointed he has been with some Members who have not stood up for building trades. These are men and women who work in every State. All they want to do is go to work and have jobs. He was extremely disappointed in the gridlock over this piece of legislation, and that is exactly what he said to me. He said: Senator, we are about fed up with elections and politics because what my members want are jobs. That is what their families want, and they are tired of fooling around with some commonsense projects that would bring so much wealth to middle-class families. I know that the majority leader on our side is concerned about the flat line of middle-class income in this country, and I know his heart is working toward increasing income for all families. This is the first step. Not only is the project itself going to generate huge amounts of jobs and economic activity--and I am going to put that amount in the record. It is estimated to be $20 billion. It is slightly less than the size of the entire State of Vermont's GDP. This one project is like the output of one of our States--albeit a small State--but Vermont is an important State.…”