James M. Talent: “The thing he and I emphasized that I believe is so important is that these problems we have in transportation are…”

“The thing he and I emphasized that I believe is so important is that these problems we have in transportation are problems that are not going to go away if we don't do anything. If the Federal Government were a private company and its capital infrastructure were in the condition that America's capital infrastructure is in, you would have to list that somehow on the books as affecting the valuation of the company. I am no expert on these things, but that inadequate capital infrastructure of that company would be an ongoing obligation of the company. It would be a debt that the company has to pay because everybody in the commonsense world, if I can say that, understands that eventually you have to deal with this issue. It is also common knowledge, uncontested, that in particular with regard to transportation, when you delay, costs go up a lot because there are so many inputs to transportation costs: Material costs; wages, of course, go up, one hopes, periodically; costs of right-of-way can go up. There are a lot of things affecting those costs. Everybody knows it is dangerous to put off projects because costs can escalate far beyond the rate of inflation, far beyond what you are earning on the money you are not spending because you didn't want to pay for the transportation.”