Ray LaHood
Ray LaHood
Raymond H. "Ray" LaHoodis an American politician who served as United States Secretary of Transportation from 2009 until 2013. A Republican from Illinois, LaHood represented Illinois's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2009. In 2015, LaHood's book, Seeking Bipartisanship: My Life in Politics, coauthored with Frank H. Mackaman of The Dirksen Congressional Center, was published by Cambria Press...
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth6 December 1945
money people worried
It's just a lot of money and people are worried that it's done correctly,
bad holding seen
It's as bad as I've ever seen it. The dike is broken. There's no holding back.
moment sitting
It's a little unrealistic for us to be sitting around at this moment having a lot of heartburn about the deficit,
good
they don't think he'll do it because he's done it before and he has a good lifestyle.
follow heir knowing unknown
They didn't like the unknown of not knowing who would follow on, ... There was no heir apparent.
anthrax county four letter office people scare since six takes washington weeks
People used to write a letter, but since the anthrax scare it takes four to six weeks for a letter from Adams County to get to an office in Washington D.C.,
convince lived opportunity people politics rule run tried types
People can say all types of stuff, ... When I lived in Peoria before, people tried to convince me to run for things. I had an opportunity then and I didn't. I will say I'm never going to rule that out in the future. Politics is a lot about being in the right place at the right time.
beat decides nominee
If he decides to do that, he'll be the nominee of our party, and he's the one that can beat Blagojevich,
believe talking people
What Lincoln did is he gathered people around him the way that I believe President Obama is doing by calling Republicans, talking to them, trying to work with them. And when that happens, big things get solved.
swings bridges rivers
Portal Bridge is based on a design from the 1840s and was already obsolete shortly after it was completed in 1910. It's a swing bridge that needs to be opened several times a week so barges can pass up and down the river. It takes about a half an hour. The problem is it fails to lock back into place on a regular basis.
air world runway
A shortage of airports runways and gates along outmoded air traffic control systems have made U.S. air travel the most congested in the world.
moving blue two
The Bush administration, they had two blue ribbon commissions about infrastructure finance that recommended a lot more money, and additionally the gas tax being increased. We couldn't get them to accept being able to move forward. Since President Obama's been in office, there has been, to be charitable, a lack of enthusiasm for raising the gas tax.
years bills lasts
Last time Congress passed a major six-year transportation bill was in 1997, since then there have been 21 short-term extensions.
iceland world levels
Public spending on infrastructure has fallen to its lowest level since 1947. And the U.S., which used to have the finest infrastructure in the world, is now ranked 16th according to the World Economic Forum, behind Iceland, Spain, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates.