Political Quotes

“This week, we started the 33rd extension of the highway spending program. The 33rd time that we failed to deal meaningfully with the crisis in funding our transportation system. It is a symbol of Congress' failure to deal with a country that is falling apart and falling behind. No country became great building its infrastructure 7 months at a time. It prompts silly ideas. One recently, an op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal, talks about ``Taxing for Highways, Paying for Bike Lanes'' as the problem. Well, as is pointed out in letters to the editor today, it is not spending on bike paths which Dr. Pete Ruane, head of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, pointed out is about 1 percent of the total Federal transportation highway budget, if you include sidewalks as well. No, the problem is that we are paying for 2015 infrastructure with 1993 dollars. We have not raised the gas tax in 22 years. Now, I would suggest that what we ought to do is to look at the broad coalition that is represented by the authors on that page from the roadbuilders and the cyclists--they are representative of the broadest coalition on any issue in American politics today--from the AFL-CIO to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the truckers--represented eloquently by Governor Bill Graves, who is not just president of the American Trucking Associations, he was the Republican Governor of Kansas who raised the gas tax not once, but twice.…”