【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 ity. Over thenext two decades, it would grow oureconomy by $ trillion. It wouldshrink our deficits bynearly a trillion dollars. This should not be a partisan issue. President Bush proposed the broadoutlines ofmonsense immigration reform almost a decade ago. When I was in the Senate,I joined 23 of myRepublican colleagues to back those reforms. This year, the Senate has alreadypassed a bill with broad bipartisansupport.
　　So all we’re doing now is waitingfor the House to act. I don’t know whatthe holdup is. But ifthere’s a goodreason not to do it, I haven’t heard it. There’s no reason both parties can’t etogether and get this donethis year. Get it done this year. (Applause.)
　　Number three, Democrats andRepublicans should work together on a responsible budgetthat sets America on astronger course for the future. Weshouldn’t get caught up in the sameold fights. And we shouldn’t just cut things just for the sake of cuttingthings. Remember, Iwant to remind you what’s happening in the deficits? They’re going down. They’’re falling faster thanthey have in 60 years.
　　So what we have to do now is dowhat America has always done: Make somewiseinvestments in our people and in our country that will help us grow overthe long term. Weshould close wastefultax loopholes that don’t help our jobs, don’t grow our economy, and theninvestthat money in things that actually do create jobs and grow our economy. And one of thosethings is building new roadsand bridges and schools and ports. Thatcreates jobs. (Applause.) Itputs people to work during theconstruction phase. And then it createsan infrastructure for oureconomy to succeed moving forward.
　　Educating our kids, training ourworkers so they’re prepared for the global economy thathelps us grow. We should be investing in that. And Mayor Landrieu has been doing a great jobinimproving education here in New Orleans. (Applause.)
　　Investing in science and research and technology that keeps ourbusinesses and ourmilitary at our cutting edge. That’s the kind of investment we should bemaking.
　　I mean, think about ourinfrastructure. In today’s globaleconomy, businesses are going totake root and grow wherever there’s thefastest, most reliable transportation andmunications networks they cango anywhere. So China is investing a lotin is investing awhole lot in infrastructure. And Brazilis investing a whole lot ininfrastructure. What are we doing?
　　We’re doing some good thingslocally here. The state and city aretrying to do some work,but nationally we’re falling behind. We’re relying on old stuff. I don’t think we should have justoldstuff. We should have some new stuffthat is going to help us grow and keep pace withglobal petition.
　　Rebuilding our transportation andmunications networks is one of the fastest ways tocreate good jobs. And consider that just a couple of years fromnow, we’re going to have newsupertankers that are going to start ingthrough the Panama Canal, and these tankers canhold three times as much cargoas today’s. If a port can’t handle thosesupertankers, they’ll goload and unload cargo somewhere else. So there’s work that we can start doing interms ofdredging and making the passageways deeper, which means thesupertankers can have morestuff on them, which means they can unload and loadmore stuff, which makes this port morepetitive.
　　So why wouldn’t we put people towork upgrading them? (Applause.) Why wouldn’t we dothat? It’s not just our ports either. One in nine of our bridges is ratedstructurally than 40percent of our major highways are congested。 so is our airspace. Everybody who’ssitting on a tarmac wonderingwhy it is that you’re not taking off, and getting aggravated whenyou go flysomeplace, part of the reason is we’ve got this antiquated air traffic need the next generation airtraffic control system. It would reducetime travel。 it wouldreduce delays. Itreduces fuel costs for airlines. Itreduces pollution in the sky. We knowhow todo it, we just haven’t done it.
　　That shouldn’t be a Democratic ora