Political Quotes

“I rise to address the highway funding issue we are discussing today. Four or five years ago, Tom Brokaw wrote a book called ``The Greatest Generation.'' He was talking about the generation that sacrificed--I repeat sacrificed--on our behalf. They struggled through the Depression, they fought World War II. Then when it was over, they paid the debt from World War II and built the Interstate Highway System. I hate to think what Tom Brokaw would call the book written about our generation, which has, in effect, rebuilt the World War II debt, which we are passing on to our children. We cannot even keep the Interstate Highway System fixed. This is shameful. I am here to support the Carper-Boxer-Corker amendment, because it forces us to deal with it in this Congress. It is not going to be any easier to deal with next May. Let's get it done. We have the answers. We know what we have to do. The highway system is a pay-as-you-go system. The problem is, now we are going more than we are paying. The gasoline tax has not been raised since 1993, 21 years ago. But the cost of maintaining the highways, of course, has been raised precipitously. Not fixing infrastructure is debt. A lot of people around here talk about debt, and we are worried about the debt we are passing on to our children.…”