Tim Ryan: “I think it's $120 billion, maybe, on high-speed rail. They're going to have more tracks in China than in the rest of the…”

“I think it's $120 billion, maybe, on high-speed rail. They're going to have more tracks in China than in the rest of the world combined in the next 5 or 10 years; and we're sitting here saying we're not going to do anything because we're not for high-speed rail. Ohio gave back $400 million, and Florida gave back a few hundred million dollars. We know from conversations we've had with businesspeople that that would have lured companies into the State of Ohio because they want to build railcars, but they're not going to build them if we don't have a high-speed rail program. These are investments that we have made. We've gotten into the mind-set that the government can't do everything, but it has to do something. What it has to do is make sure our roads and our bridges and our infrastructure are up to speed. I was just talking with Congressman Doyle from Pittsburgh. He said $3 billion in sewer projects need to get done--EPA-mandated in Pittsburgh. I think Cleveland is $2 billion to $3 billion and that Akron is about $1 billion. It's hundreds of millions in places like Youngstown and in smaller cities. I'm sure Toledo is up there in the hundreds of millions in these older cities.”