Political Quotes

“56 years ago it took President Eisenhower a year to convince Congress and the country to make an unprecedented investment in America's highway system. After all, building 47,000 miles of interstate highways across the Nation would require an unparalleled effort and unprecedented investment. The project required enough concrete to build six sidewalks to the Moon at a cost of $50 billion or the equivalent of almost $\1/2\ trillion today. The project was hugely successful. It created jobs, it connected farms and factories, tiny towns and towering cities, and allowed manufacturers and merchants to ship goods across our country for the first time in our Nation's history. Looking back on this effort to pass the first highway bill, President Eisenhower considered it the crowning accomplishment of his Presidency. ``More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America,'' President Eisenhower wrote in his memoir. ``Its impact on the American economy--the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up--was beyond calculation.'' Fifty-six years after his initial work, Congress once again is considering transportation legislation, an investment in this country's crumbling roads, bridges, and train tracks. But we have the benefit of history on our side.…”