http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-842839.mp3
Overland Park, KS – On a small stage, peering down an embankment to U.S. 69 in Overland Park , Vice President Joseph Biden touted economic recovery via highway renovation.
The project to widen and improve driving safety is pushed by some 82 million dollars in economic recovery funds. Critics say it won't create many jobs. Job contractor Bill Clarkson says he will work 300 people a week. Promoters say there will actually be nearly twenty five hundred jobs created or sustained during construction.
Vice President Biden answered others who say the administration is too ambitious. In his words, "my response is, why do you think people elected us? They elected us to change."
Kansas U.S. Senator Pat Roberts had asked earlier about wisdom of paving a different state highway being torn apart by an EPA flood recovery project. The veteran Republican lawmaker suggested the vice president should do something about that when he came to Kansas. Biden's response the next day? One phone call to the transportation secretary and the work was rescheduled.