Chris Sununu: “I happened to come to the floor to hear my colleagues from Illinois and Iowa talking about their concern for the deficit…”

“I happened to come to the floor to hear my colleagues from Illinois and Iowa talking about their concern for the deficit and for spending priorities, and I share their concern. However, it is worth noting that at this time the pending business of the Senate is a transportation bill that is, by any standards, enormous. It represents an increase of over 40 percent over the previous 6-year bill. It represents a dramatic expansion in the size and scope of Federal Government. It totals over $300 billion. Unfortunately, it seeks to obtain funds by diverting general revenue tax receipts into the highway trust fund, something that has never been done before. To the best of my knowledge, both of my colleagues who spoke earlier are more than willing to vote for this enormous spending measure. I just do not think it is credible to take the floor and raise concerns about deficits and spending priorities and, at the same time, be willing to support such a massive increase in infrastructure spending, when we know full well that States are very capable of making sound decisions for this kind of construction and investment. We know full well that it is wrong to divert money from the general revenue fund in order to support an expansion of this funding. And we know full well this bill is significantly in excess of what has been proposed by the President.”