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Vice President Joe Biden in Memphis: Railroads, the War on Cancer and Politics

whitehouse.gov

Vice President Joe Biden visited Memphis today, commemorating the 7th Anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. His whistle stop at Memphis’ Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Rail Project highlighted a $105 million federal grant designed to create jobs and reduce pollution and highway congestion by increasing railroad volume.

Speaking with WKNO-FM 91.1, he touted the benefits of the project, touched on his current work overseeing a billion dollars in cancer research, and offered some thoughts about the current election.

On the Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Rail Project:

The big success story here is we’re taking an early-20th Century rail system and turning back it into a 21st Century system. Since we passed the Recovery Act, Memphis has added 38,000 jobs… These intermodal facilities -- meaning rail, highway and ports -- they significantly increase economic output.

On the environmental benefits of this infrastructure project:

It will save 170 million gallons of gasoline per year, and reduce carbon emissions by up to 200 million tons a year. One of the biggest problems is highways are increasingly clogged by major trucking interests. Highway congestion costs American commuters $101 billion in lost productivity and wasted gasoline.

On overseeing $1 billion in funding for cancer research:

You’re going to hear more and more me getting people to talk about big data. Use that big data and supercomputing capability to narrow down what works and what doesn’t work. Saving people’s lives, turning some cancers into chronic diseases, and improving the life expectancy considerably of the vast majority of cancer patients.

On the primaries:

I’m not going to pick a candidate… but I am going to speak out. I am confident, we are at the beginning of an enormous Renaissance in America. We are better positioned than any country in the world to own the 21st Century. If we could just get out of our own way, trust the American people a little more. They know we can do so much more. So part of this is an attitude about how much faith I have in the American people. Give them half a chance. They have never, never, never, never ever let their country down.

Reporting from the gates of Graceland to the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Christopher has covered Memphis news, arts, culture and politics for more than 20 years in print and on the radio. He is currently WKNO's News Director and Senior Producer at the University of Memphis' Institute for Public Service Reporting. Join his conversations about the Memphis arts scene on the WKNO Culture Desk Facebook page.