Loading ...
Two of the biggest change agents of 2008 - President Elect Barack Obama and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels - finally met on Tuesday and the Hoosier Republican said he was “impressed.” Meeting with reporters at Mount Comfort Airport after the National Governors Association meeting in Philadephia at Obama’s behest, Daniels said Tuesday afternoon that Obama “made it very clear” that at the heart of a stimulus package that will likely pass Congress on Jan. 20 is a plan “not to bail out states” but to put people to work. “If they send us a check, we’ll cash it,” Daniels said, noting that even though his Major Moves program has provided the state with a 10-year highway plan, additional federal funds aimed at infrastructure could help finish I-69 to Evansville and begin a mass transit program as long as it quickly put Hoosiers to work. Obama told the governors, “Change is not going to come from Washington alone. It’s going to come from all of you. It will come from a White House and statehouses all across the country that are working together, and that’s the kind of partnership I that I intend to forge as president of the United States. If we’re listening to the governors, then the money that we spend is going to be well spent, and it means that it’s going to get working faster and the people in your states are going to experience prosperity sooner.” Daniels said he urged Obama and Congres not to tie the stimulus funds for states to the federal highway formula that he says short-changes Indiana by returning only 92 cents on the dollar. “It’s grossly unfair,” Daniels said. He said he also urged Obama to get the money to states without federal strings attached, perhaps in the forms of grants, saying that states know how to build bridges and roads. Daniels said he was encouraged that Obama initiated the meeting with 59 governors (including those from U.S. territories and governors elect). Asked if the money could be used for mass transit, Daniels responded, “Yeah, I think so.” He said that the word “infrastructure is too elastic a word” that in the past has simply meant roads, bridges and rail. Asked about his impressions of Obama, Daniels, who sat next to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich during the conference, called the president elect “very smart, very thoughtful.” Daniels said he was impressed when Obama repeated a line he used during his Grant Park victory speech on Nov. 4. “He said ‘I’ll try to listen even if we disagree.” (HPI Photo by Brian A. Howey)
Tags: Barack Obama, Mitch Daniels
Related posts
This entry was written by and posted on December 2, 2008 at 6:25 pm and filed under HPI Weekly. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.