Marcy Kaptur: “In looking at our bill and looking at some of the accounts, especially for the energy and water accounts and the general…”

“In looking at our bill and looking at some of the accounts, especially for the energy and water accounts and the general provisions, there was an excellent article in this week's International Herald Tribune. It talks about sound investments. I will read portions of it very briefly here. It talks about how the rate of economic growth in Germany is surpassing our own just now, and the unemployment rate as a result has dropped to 5.3 percent, and falling further--much lower than in the United States. It investigates why that is the case. It talks quite a bit here about the German economy having made investments whose future benefits will far outweigh repayment costs. This bill and its accounts, essentially, should be doing that; but, unfortunately, it cuts back on some of the most significant job growth. The article goes on to say that the U.S. economy is still in doldrums. And that's because many of the needed workers and machines are now idle. If the country waits, it will need to bid them away from other tasks. Also, because of the sluggish economy, the materials required for the work are now relatively inexpensive. So this is really the time to encourage investment in our economy to lift the entire system. The article goes on to talk about the fact that in Germany there had been certain austerity backers, they call them, and it says: Now austerity backers urge--preposterously--that infrastructure repairs be postponed until government budgets are in balance.…”