Posted on 05/16/2015 8:24:15 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Then there was the ARRA Act of 2009 that was to spend 871 billion for infrastructure, etc. .
Buying votes from the ignorant, everyone loses.
The left does not want anyone to connect the dots, but the problem with the Highway Trust Fund, and with transportation funding in general, is over-centralization. Dot, period, end of story. We have these great, massive federal slush funds, which produce an endless struggle pitting states against states, cities against suburbs against rural areas, and various modes of transportation against each other. Instead of rolling up their sleeves and getting to work fixing their own infrastructure, everyone gets in line for a federal check, and wages scorched earth politics for the subsidy dollars.
That's all very important, but you need to look at it as a sequence of events
First, there was the Bush stimulus in Feb 08, that you had to apply for on your income tax return.
A few months after that Pelosi would start agitating for a second stimulus, but she wanted infrastructure spending included. Both candidates Obama and Clinton signed off on that.
Bush was opposed to infrastructure spending, but before anything happened, the bubble burst and everything started deflating.
Then Bush got the TARP money approved by Congress in Dec, but had to turn it over to Obama and Obama would buy up all the toxic debt. All the leftwingers wanted Obama to hold back on spending the TARP money and force reforms on Wall Street, but he moved quickly because all the credit markets were frozen. So the leftwingers started Occupy Wall Street in protest.
Then you have the Obama stimulus for shovel ready, but it was just Pelosi's stimulus from the year before.
It was not as effective as it should have been because by that time, all the state govts were reeling from the economic collapse and they would use Obama's stimulus money in lieu of state money.
For example, Texas got significant Obama stimulus money for roads, school spending, and dredging ports, which they spent. Had they not got the Obama stimulus, the lege would have had to appropriate the money, so consequently, there was no net increase in spending.
“all you dummies get out of my way. I have a plan” Fred Sanford
When a democrat uses the word “infrastructure”, it is a code word that means take from the government treasury and give it to the unions for kick backs and campaign contributions.
LOL. We call them sidewalks to nowhere.
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