Political Quotes

“Earlier, our colleague, Mr. Tonko, was talking about the Erie Canal and the foresight and the commitment that went in and just the unbelievable feat that it was to accomplish that. And I was thinking, as the gentleman was speaking, about the debate that we're having in this country about transportation and infrastructure. {time} 2100 We are going to debate tomorrow and vote probably Thursday in this House on a very underfunded transportation bill that does not contain the same foresight that the gentleman was discussing occurred in New York. And I think about the debate that must have occurred in New York when the Erie Canal was proposed, and the cost and the expense and the manpower and just the time commitment that was necessary, a seemingly impossible task. You think about the intercontinental railroad in the 1800s and what the country's debate, the political debate had been at that time. What must have been the debate in the 1940s and 1950s when President Eisenhower finally got off the ground the interstate highway system and began connecting our roads in a way that we'd never done before. That's what we're facing right now. We have a system of transportation in this country to move goods from point A to point B, manufacturing and make it in America, what we were talking about. Well, if you make it in America, you have to have a way to move goods across the country. We can do that in all kinds of ways.…”