[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 61 (Thursday, April 17, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H2452-H2453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       A PLAN TO SUPPORT OUR ECONOMY AND OUR INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, John McCain has famously said that he 
doesn't know much about economic issues. But it's paradoxical that the 
Republican presidential candidate's idea for helping a troubled economy 
is to put people out of work and make traffic congestion worse and 
freight movement harder.
  His proposal to stop collecting the gas tax will cut critical funding 
that keeps commuters, freight and our economy running. And when the 
trust fund is moving into deficit for the first time in our history he 
will only make that problem worse.
  It will also lead to the loss of over 300,000 highway-related jobs, 
while there's no evidence that huge oil companies will cut their prices 
when they get this gas tax ``Holiday''. It is the

[[Page H2453]]

worst kind of pandering to mortgage the future to serve current 
political needs.
  Instead, it's time for our presidential candidates to talk about 
their vision, their plan to support our economy and our infrastructure 
needs.

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