At Highway Bill Signing, Obama Tells Congress ‘Bad Way for Gov’t To Do Business’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: "I've about to sign a three month extension of a highway funding. That is a good thing because if this was in front of me and ready for signature, we would have Rogers all across the country close. On the other hand, we have now made a habit where instead of five-year funding plans for transportation, instead of long-term approaches where we can actually strategize on the most important project, how they are getting paid for, providing information to mayors and leaders in localities about how they will approach roads, bridges, airports, ports, instead, we operate hand to mouth, three months at a time, which freezes a lot of construction, makes people uncertain, leads to businesses not willing to hire because they don't have any long-term certainty. It is a bad way for the U.S. Government to do business.
I want to make sure that before I sign this, Congress gets a clear message. That is we should not be leaving all the business of the U.S. Government to the last minute. Think about the things that are still undone as Congress is about to go on vacation. They not reauthorize the export import bank which creates tens of thousands of jobs all across the country. Good paying jobs, because it increases our exports. When I was in Ethiopia on our trip, we sold a score of airplanes to ethiopian airlines from Boeing. Small businesses benefit from us being able to facilitate the cell of U.S. Products to other countries. I had a group of small business people here with employees ranging from 12 employees to 500 employees saying that their business sales were starting to be affected by congressional in action on what has traditionally , 481 years, been by partisan -- has been bipartisan support for the export import bank. Congress has had all year to do a budget, and yet, Congress is leaving on vacation without the budget done. When they get back, they will have about two weeks in order to do the people's business. This is going to be critical."
