Political Quotes

“I rise to speak regarding the highway bill. We each come into work daily with different thoughts. I come in today very hopeful. The fact is we have a bipartisan bill that hopefully will actually have the finance component of it on the floor soon. We have had it worked through the various committees of the Senate--the Banking Committee, the Commerce Committee, the EPW Committee. I think what this body is waiting for right now is the Finance Committee package, and I know they are continuing to work on that package. The reason I come down here, in a very hopeful way, is I think all of us support the highway bill. We want to see a bill such as this passed. But I think we also want to see it passed in an appropriate way, and some of the earlier renditions that have come out of the Finance Committee, unfortunately, have not paid for this bill. It is my sense that maybe what is happening right now is that there is some work being done to try to make that not the case. I know the Senator from New York is familiar with the health care debate we had years ago, and one of the issues many of the folks on this side of the aisle were concerned about--and I think many folks on the other side of the aisle were concerned about--was some of the gimmickry used to pay for it. We had 6 years' worth of spending and 10 years' worth of revenues. Obviously, people around the country-- rightfully so--were concerned about that.…”