Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we know that our generation, people in the Senate and in the House--people in their forties, fifties, and sixties--inherited from their parents and grandparents the greatest infrastructure in the history of the world. From the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s into the Reagan years, when we decided we should invest less in infrastructure, we had this incredible infrastructure we inherited from our parents and grandparents. Yet, for whatever reason, we have allowed it to crumble. We haven't invested. We haven't modernized. We haven't even maintained it as well as we should. The dismal state of our Nation's outdated roads and bridges and railways cost Ohioans and North Carolinians valuable time and money and energy. The State legislature in my State and I know the State legislature in the Presiding Officer's State have been on a budget-cutting tear. My State legislature has decided to slice in half, and then some, local funding for many things, including infrastructure. As a result, the streets in any town in Ohio, virtually--not just big cities, not just suburbs, but more affluent communities, small towns, and rural areas-- the streets and highways continue to crumble. It is because this body has been far too dysfunctional because of the pledges that many elected officials have made to a Washington lobbyist that they will never close tax loopholes and will continue to fail to fund infrastructure because of what State government has done in my State.…”