Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, America needs a long-term, sustainably funded surface transportation bill. You know it. I know it. The Governors in all of our States know it. We need it to repair our roads and bridges and to fix our crumbling infrastructure. Every single one of the 435 Members in this body has needs in his district. Speaker Boehner has 136 deficient bridges in his district. Leader Pelosi has 29. In my State of Vermont, we have 252 structurally deficient bridges. A photo of one of them is right here. It is disgraceful and it is unnecessary. Yet, instead of facing up to this problem that we all share and doing something that a proud and confident country would do--invest in its future--with reckless irresponsibility, we are acting, once again, to dodge our duty with yet another short-term extension of our highway bill. This time, the plan is a bold extension for 5 months, through December 18. Can our transportation agencies really plan a bridge replacement or a major repair in the next 5 months? By the way, how is it paid for? It is not by asking users to pay, which has traditionally been the way we have funded our roads and bridges, but by, in this case, among other dubious devices. We are asking airline passengers 10 years from now to pay a few billion dollars to fix our highways tomorrow. Think about it. Airline passengers in 10 years--2025--will pay for road repairs we make tomorrow. By the way, this resort to gimmicks is not new.…”