On the recordMarch 24, 2015
in a few minutes we will be voting, and while I sincerely appreciate the effort of my good friend Senator Sanders, I will be opposing this approach mostly because I don't think we need to go through what I consider to be a massive tax increase in order to do this. But just for a moment, I wish to talk about the seriousness of the transportation reauthorization bill. I know this issue has been talked about during the budget conversation and debate, but I think sometimes we ought to drag up that old document that hardly anyone pays attention to anymore--the Constitution. The Constitution specifically says in article I, section 8 that there are some things we are supposed to be doing here. The two major things that are mentioned in the article I, section 8 are, No. 1, defending America--that is our military--and the other is roads and bridges. I think we are concentrating and working very hard. A minute ago I had a colloquy with my friend from California, Senator Boxer. Senator Boxer observed that she is a proud liberal and recognized me as a proud conservative. Yet here is something we agree on, something we can do, something that is very important and that we need to take care of. Now, I won't say anything about the defense problem. We have a serious problem in our defense system right now, but that is not the discussion for today.…
