Tim Ryan: “I would just like to support what the gentlelady from the District of Columbia has been saying, that this is bread and…”

“I would just like to support what the gentlelady from the District of Columbia has been saying, that this is bread and butter, this is Economics 101 in how you get the economy back up and running. At a time when we have these high unemployment numbers for the building trades and the construction trades, what a shot in the arm. For work--and I think this is the essential point--this work needs to be done anyway. So it's either going to get done now or it's going to get done later. Why not do it now when you can get the best bang for your buck, to put people back to work when they need to go back to work and also jump-start the economy as opposed to say, Oh, we're going to wait, we're going to do it 5 years from now when cement is more expensive 5 years from now, labor is more expensive 5 years from now, all the other costs associated with the project and the materials are going to be more expensive 5 years from now. So let's get the job done now, let's make these investments now, let's get the economy going now. We are having some job growth and the sequester is hurting, but we have got to make these investments. Let's rebuild the country, and let's rebuild the way our cities look. Let's have an innovative approach to the way we create and invest in our downtowns and tie it into what we are doing in many older industrial areas where we are knocking down a lot of old homes.…”