On the recordApril 15, 2011
We have been greeted with a Republican budget that is a profoundly negative view of the future, and you've heard some of the reasons. I want to focus on just one. It doesn't just ignore the infrastructure deficit of an America that is falling apart--over $2 trillion of unmet needs as referenced by my friend from Minnesota. It makes it worse. A 31 percent cut in already inadequate funding for national infrastructure. The Progressive Budget hears the needs of the American public and actually agrees with the truckers, the U.S. Chamber, local governments, AAA of America, indeed, the deficit commission, all suggested that, for the first time since 1993, we raise the gas tax. My Republican friends have lost track of their Republican roots, for Republicans used to believe in infrastructure. Lincoln. Eisenhower. Eisenhower raised the gas tax. Even Reagan raised the gas tax. This progressive budget is a profound investment in infrastructure. It will put millions to work renewing and rebuilding America.
