Roy Blunt: “I thank my friend and my congressional neighbor. When we were in the House, we represented adjoining districts in…”

“I thank my friend and my congressional neighbor. When we were in the House, we represented adjoining districts in Missouri and Oklahoma, and it is good to be serving in the Senate with my friend and to hear his commonsense approach on how we need to solve the problems we are facing as a country and the needless problems the government seems to be willing to create for itself. We have been talking so much--at least the President has been talking about economic fairness as the principal goal of the Tax Code. Frankly, the most fair thing we can do in the Tax Code and in the Senate would be to work to be sure we are dealing with the important issues the job creators and families are dealing with across the country today. All of us have had the opportunity to be home over the last 2 weeks. I was able to be in the last of the 115 Missouri counties that I hadn't been in since I was sworn into the Senate 15 or so months ago. I learn a lot when I am out there. What I learned this time is that people are focused on fuel costs. Fuel costs are on track to hit an average of $4 per gallon by summertime. This is more than double what fuel costs were in January of 2009, and it set the all-time record for the last 2 months. I talked to the people in south central Missouri who are trying to provide transportation for older Americans and disabled Americans, and the fuel cost increase of $150,000 means they have to cut back their services.…”