Senator Tom Harkin says Governor Vilsack’s new idea about rebuilding the country’s cities sounds a lot like what Harkin himself touted when he was running for president over a decade ago. Vilsack, who like Harkin is a Democrat, says Congress should sell government-backed “Patriot Bonds” to finance rebuilding the infrastructure of the hurricane-wrecked Gulf Coast as well as the nation’s crumbling big cities. “Go back and get my ‘Blueprint for America’ that I had when I ran for president in 1991,” Harkin says. “It talked about rebuilding our infrastructure: our roads, our sewer and water systems, our schools.” Harkin says Vilsack’s repackaged a good idea. Harkin says the nation’s infrastructure serves as the “veins and arteries of commerce” and the private sector will be more profitable and more efficient if those “arteries” are “unplugged.” Harkin won Iowa’s 1992 Caucuses, but floundered in the New Hampshire primary and dropped out of the presidential race. Governor Vilsack is considering a bid for president in 2008.
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