RALEIGH — Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said the stimulus package making its way through Congress was a necessary step toward an economic recovery.
"It's not perfect," Dodd told more than 1,000 people at the Emerging Issues forum in downtown Raleigh. "It's not pretty. But history would indict us is we did nothing."
Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the stimulus package alone would not turn around the economy, Rob Christensen reports.
"I think realistically, it can stop it from getting worse," Dodd said.
He said every member of Congress would have designed the stimulus package differently. He would have preferred putting more money into mass transit.
More after the jump.
—————
Dodd was the lead off speaker at a two-day conference that will look at what North Carolina can do to improve its roads, schools, bridges, water and sewer and other projects.
Leaders from across North Carolina were to hear from Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, from members of the North Carolina delegation to Congress and at lunch from Gov. Beverly Perdue.
Among the ideas floated was a national high speed transit rail that would stretch from Wilmington, North Carolina to Long Beach California. He said that idea was broached by a Connecticut man.
Former Gov. Jim Hunt, who founded the conference, said more attention needs to be paid to North Carolina's road system.
"We used to be known as the good roads state," Hunt said. "We used to be known as the great good roads state. Yet today we have a lot of potholes and great needs in repairing our roads."
Blog RSS feed
