Frank Lautenberg: “Mr. President, I hope the American public is looking at this because this is kind of ``inside baseball.'' This is what…”

“Mr. President, I hope the American public is looking at this because this is kind of ``inside baseball.'' This is what helps people get from place to place, get to work on time, get to the hospital on time, get to church on time. We are terribly short of funds altogether for highway repair and development. Everybody knows that. We have about a $30 billion highway bill. This 5-month hiatus will take $10 billion away. The worst part of it is that the benefits are not going to go to the public because all of us need to remember that the taxes are remitted by the oil companies--by the companies that, in many cases, are gouging the public this very day. So they can hold on to that and that will make the year-end profit statement look even better. Stock prices will be higher. The public will not get what they thought they were getting. They are going to get stuck; that is what will happen. They will be stuck in traffic because we won't be able to continue the highway work. Once you stop it, it is very hard to get it started again.”