Political Quotes

“On May 31, a looming deadline, the highway trust fund extension expires. I actually could have dusted off the speech I gave last summer, arguing against this ill-advised measure to slide it into this spring. As I pointed out then, we will be right back in the same spot. We will be stuck. We won't have a long-term proposal. We won't have a short-term proposal. We will look at another extension. Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to stop the stalling. Everyone ought to make a commitment that this will be the last extension that we take before we give America what it needs, a robust 6-year reauthorization of the critical highway trust fund. Please focus on making sure this does not slide beyond the end of this Federal fiscal year because Congress doesn't act absent some sort of deadline, and do instead what we do best: stall, study, and sidestep. If we would actually start working now, the 5 months until the expiration of this Federal fiscal year, we can actually give the people legislation they deserve. It is not that hard; except if you never start, if you don't know how big the program is going to be, if you don't get down to business, it is difficult. Now, I hear that the simplest approach, the most direct approach-- raising the gas tax for the first time in 22 years--is somehow too hard, too difficult for Congress. It has been pronounced dead on arrival.…”