Where He’s Going He’s Gonna Need Roads

By Kleinheider Posted on May 12, 2008 at 5:27 pm

Democratic U. S. Senate candidate Mike Padgett discusses how to preserve Tennessee manufacturing:

“We don’t know how our community is going to survive,” they told me. With manufacturing gone and little road access to draw new industry to Hancock County, there are no jobs to keep future generations around. When the 50- and 60- somethings begin to pass on, well … who knows?

I hear this same worry so many places. It just underscores the need to aim our resources, our tax dollars at aggressive, innovative ways to create new jobs. There are communities that are dying for lack of them, and the status quo in Washington doesn’t seem to get it.

Well, I do, and I am willing to take the problem on as a U.S. Senator. A big part of the task will be in infrastructure – building roads that can accommodate a 21^st century distribution network. (Makes more sense than spending billions to rebuild Baghdad.)

Rogersville, our second stop today, is a good case in point. The roads into town are good, and manufacturing has survived there. It is a more vibrant community economically than a lot I have seen. It can happen elsewhere, with the right kind of leadership.

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