James M. Talent: “I have been to ribbon cuttings and ceremonies in Missouri, and I bet the Senator has been to them in Oregon, where…”

“I have been to ribbon cuttings and ceremonies in Missouri, and I bet the Senator has been to them in Oregon, where localities have financed local bond issues in order to do transportation infrastructure, because there is not enough money coming from the State and Federal Government. States also do this. The Senator and I are not talking about shifting over to bonding as a way of replacing other highway dollars, or taking over the job of financing transportation, because we do not want that. But bonding should be part of a package that will give us the ability to do the big projects, the one-time projects. We are not suggesting the States should build this into their regular maintenance budgets because this money is going to come in and is going to be invested. It is not a regular stream. It is part of an overall financing package absolutely, and it is done all over this country. Given the deficit transportation situation we are in, the fact that we have this terrible problem with transportation, I think it is foolish of us not to consider it.”