Political Quotes

“I rise to address the surface transportation bill that is on the floor. It has been a mark of the challenges this body faces in deliberation that we have now been on this bill for 3 weeks, and we have not had a debate over transportation amendments. But hope does spring eternal. In that spirit, I wished to come to the floor and share some thinking about the amendments that we should be debating and should be approving in this process. Certainly, the underlying Transportation bill is a great step toward our No. 1 goal of passing legislation that would create jobs, put people back to work in the hardest hit sectors of our economy. Building and repairing our transportation infrastructure will create or save 2 million jobs nationwide, good-paying jobs that would provide a huge boost to our struggling construction industry, the families, to the workers, and to our economy. This infrastructure we would be building is a downpayment for the success of our future economy. China is spending 10 percent of its GDP on infrastructure. They are preparing for a stronger economy in the future. Europe is spending 5 percent of their GDP, but in America we are spending only 2 percent. Indeed, it was not but a few months ago that our colleagues on the House side of Capitol Hill said we should cut transportation spending by 30 to 35 percent, which would devastate the infrastructure efforts that are underway, even within the existing 2 percent, the small amount we are spending.…”