James Traficant: “if we listen to the opponents of this particular bill, we would think that Dwight David Eisenhower was the father of…”

“if we listen to the opponents of this particular bill, we would think that Dwight David Eisenhower was the father of pork in America. Ike was not a pork barrel President, and this is not just truth in budgeting, this is a truth in financing, truth in borrowing. I should have offered an amendment calling for an investigation into congressional borrowing from trust funds. These user fees are taxes. The American people pay taxes to fix their roads. The money going to this account is already going for other services. It is not true. This a good bill. Let us talk about this. Maybe we should take the Committee on Appropriations and keep them on budget and take the trust funds off. H.R. 842 does not say these matters still do not go through appropriation. They are still subject to appropriation. The trouble with America today is that everybody has their hands on trust funds. They should all have their own boards of directors. No one should be able to touch them. That Social Security trust fund is financing a debt, and we are not getting the truth on the deficit or the national debt. There is no justification to use highway money for anything else. There is no justification to keep America second rate. This money has an intended purpose. There is a tax; not a user fee, a tax. That tax, Mr. Chairman, is directed towards maintaining our infrastructure, fixing our roads, and the appropriators still have a say.”