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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 008-09
January 8, 2009

STATEMENT BY MAYOR BLOOMBERG ON PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA'S SPEECH ON THE ECONOMY

"The President-elect wisely invited mayors from our nation's largest cities to attend this important address and I was proud to attend and represent New York City.  He gave a great speech and understands our cities have to be a central focus of any recovery plan.  This was the opening salvo of a long, difficult battle to reform the way this country spends money and to get the economy moving again.  He understands he is going to have to lead the charge and it is not going to get done without both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and both sides of the aisle working together.

"The President-elect said we have no choice but to invest in infrastructure, something Governors Schwarzenegger, Rendell and I have been championing for some time.  This country has a long history of success in that area - Lincoln focused on the railroads, Jefferson worked on the canals, Roosevelt invested in municipal buildings and airports, and Eisenhower created a national highway system. Those investments gave us the structure we needed to go forward for decades.  And I have made the case to his incoming administration that a lot of the resources have to go directly to the cities, which is where these projects will get managed and built.

"However we invest our resources in a stimulus plan, we have to ensure we are making smart investments and that we get real, lasting, tangible returns.  A study released today by Building America's Future, our infrastructure coalition, shows it's crystal clear the public wants strong accountability in any package, and that is a good place to start any plan."







MEDIA CONTACT:


Stu Loeser   (212) 788-2958




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