Mike Capuano

Well, I am particularly happy he was enlightened.

How--when you come to the Federal Government and ask for money, how can we be sure that Governor Christie won't renege again?

But we have specifically opposed the cuts to Amtrak in the President's budget.

I think the long-distance network provides valuable services, but that is an argument that you can have on a philosophical basis.

The stimulus was a good bill. I am glad I voted for it.

I think high-speed rail is an embarrassment, for those of us who travel internationally, to see how far behind we are on high-speed rail.

But this is essential.

No one is going to vote for me by spending a lot of money on passenger rail.

From my perspective, anything I do as a Member of Congress to deal with Amtrak or any passenger facility across the country, none of it is going to get me a single vote.

I don't think you need to translate for me for that.

Oh, don't worry, I do disagree with it, and I have disagreed with it before, and I will continue to disagree with it tomorrow.

If you give away somebody's property, it is still taking their property away.

If I took your house, and gave it away to one of the airlines, that wouldn't be fair, would it?

You do realize that virtually nobody here believes that, but that is OK.

Look, Madam Secretary, that is fine. We all know it is the airlines who are going to run it.

It puzzles me why we are going to have so much faith in the airline industry when, in the last 2 years, they have proven repeatedly that they don't know how to manage large computerized systems.

Your apology is a beginning, and the policies seem reasonable.

There will come a day when Congress won't accept it any more on behalf of the American people.

We are kind of sick of it, as the consuming Americans.

You have forgotten that.

We can see the stairs. No one will tell us what is happening.

The airline industry needs to focus on getting its own house in order, instead of extending its reach to control our skies.

We will hold you accountable, and we expect real results.

I am opposed to that for a number of reasons, primarily because of how it is going to leave customers kind of in the lurch.

My constituents do not have that choice.