Bud Shuster: “I thank the gentleman from Florida, and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to ask my Democratic colleagues…”

“I thank the gentleman from Florida, and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to ask my Democratic colleagues, following up on the distinguished leader's question but with a little twist to it, why didn't your side, when you had control of both Houses of Congress and the Presidency, why didn't you pass a bill, a highway bill? You had the votes. You could have done anything you wanted to. In fact, the former distinguished Speaker that just spoke said that this is going to be the biggest jobs bill we pass. I thought your stimulus was supposed to be the biggest jobs bill we ever passed. It's amazing to me to come down here on the floor--and I have so much respect for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle--but to hear this argument going round and round, and as I said earlier, there's amnesia on the other side of the aisle. You had control of Congress. The bill expired in 2009. You still had control of both Houses and the Presidency. You didn't pass a bill. I also would like to make note, if you look back in the history of the highway bill, we've never been in the financial situation that we are today. We've never faced the kind of debt that we face today. And what this bill does is it lives within our means. But it does more than just that, living within our means, which we should do, and I would add, Thomas Jefferson would be appalled if he saw the kind of debt we've racked up today. He would be appalled by that.…”