Political Quotes

“The Senator's case would be logical, in many respects, to my constituents, if my constituents were not acknowledging there does need to be change. The Senator mentioned the dams in Bonneville. We are now reinventing Bonneville. We have all our Governors out, trying to set about to adopt practices that relate to the next century. The same is true in the Amtrak area. But what would not make sense to my constituents is to say, ``Look, we are going to slam the door on you. We are not going to give you the chance to try to change, to have local communities do more, to have States do more, to be cost effective. We are just going to shut the door on you and, instead, adopt what sounds almost like supply-side transportation policy, which is have the east coast of the United States make lots of money on their runs and presumably some day some of it may trickle down.'' I know the Senator does not intend that, but I want him to understand I intend to work closely with him. I am a supporter of Amtrak and supporter of a national rail system. But it is getting harder and harder to explain to folks in rural Oregon how they are supposed to wait, they are supposed to be cut off, when they are committed to change. The citizens of my region are saying, ``You bet, it is different now than it was 30 years ago, and we are not being given the chance to change.``”