Political Quotes

“again let us sort out what we are considering here. First, we have what is an admitted arithmetical error by the Department of Treasury. We are attempting to correct that error. There is no dispute between those who advocate the Warner-Graham amendment and those who are proposing the language in the underlying bill that we should correct that error. What is happening now is that because of that error, that mistake, we are now trying to change the fundamental law that relates to the allocation of surface transportation funds among the States. It would be as if a person had been involved in an automobile accident and had suffered significant injuries and received an insurance payment to make that person whole again, to repay them, reimburse them for the injuries, the medical bills, the lost wages and the other damages that they had suffered, and then their neighbor would turn and say, well, we ought to get the same bill so that we can maintain parity with our neighbor who has gotten this cash settlement from his or her insurance company. The States that were the losers, that were adversely affected by this arithmetic error are not getting any windfall. They are just like that person involved in the accident. They are being made whole. They are not getting a dime more than they were entitled to get or that they would have gotten under the ISTEA legislation had it been properly administered at every stage.”