Jim Inhofe: “there are many things we take for granted that have made our Nation prosperous. The Founding Fathers spent their lives…”

“there are many things we take for granted that have made our Nation prosperous. The Founding Fathers spent their lives seeking to create a United States of America that could survive against the great powers of England, France, and Spain. These men knew that America had at least one advantage over the European powers: size. President Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803 effectively doubled the size of the United States and provided a means by which America's inland farmers would have a guaranteed way to ship their products to market. Even today, the comparison remains striking when you ask, ``How far will one gallon of fuel move one ton of freight?'' One gallon of fuel can move a ton of freight 59 miles by truck and 386 miles by rail. That same gallon of fuel will move a ton of freight by water 522 miles. One of the main reasons for the economy of waterborne shipping lies in something physics students know as friction and we pilots know as drag. The more that friction or drag increase, the more that fuel economy decreases. There is a lot of friction between a road and a truck. There is far less between a ship and a river. This simple rule led me to lead the fight for the Water Resources Development Act a few days ago. As one of the most fiscally conservative Members of this body, I have long argued that the two most important functions of the Federal Government are to provide for national defense and public infrastructure.…”