Free Republic

They may not ride in crammed trains or carry angst over potholes but feuding presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both want to fix America's infrastructure. The focus on improving public transit and highways couldn't come soon enough for local commuters, say two experts. "There is a desperate need to invest more into mass transit in Chicagoland," Regional Transportation Authority Chairman and former state senator Kirk Dillard said. "Most states significantly assist in the mass transit arena, but that is not the case today in Illinois," Dillard added, noting New York City budgets about $196 per capita on mass...

Does anyone seriously believe that the reason we have high unemployment in America is because we have a substandard infrastructure? Apparently the politicians in Washington believe that is so because they are trying to make a case for massive infrastructure spending in order to “create jobs” and to “prepare our economy for the 21st Century.” I was watching that fountain of conventional wisdom, Fareed Zakaria tonight and he seems to buy into this proposition. He interviewed Senator Kay Baily Hutchison about her proposal for an infrastructure bank: The Kerry-Hutchison Bipartisan Infrastructure Bank also known as the BUILD Act. It won’t...

Plan sent to feds despite high forecasts; data will be updated just prior to obtaining funding Traffic forecasts for the Columbia River Crossing that remain overinflated were among the details included in environmental plans sent to federal authorities last week. The numbers will not be updated until project officials are ready to secure funding. Vancouver, WA - Columbia River Crossing planners made several key changes to the project’s environmental plans before sending them to federal authorities last week, but opted to wait on at least one other matter — updating traffic forecasts that remain overinflated. The numbers used in the...

...The only people who will benefit from this bill are bankers on Wall Street who are in line to earn huge fees on the infrastructure deals that get funded by the new national infrastructure bank. While the official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment rate in August was 9.1%, down from its peak in October of 2009 of 10.1%, the real rate of unemployment including both short and long-term discouraged workers is now 22.8%, up from 22% in October of 2009 and a new high since the Great Depression in 1933. By further impeding the free market, Obama's bill...

snip Basically, a government bank/lending institution would roll out in three ways: - The bank would funnel cash, via loans and grants, to infrastructure projects around the U.S. - The money would be earmarked mainly for road and rail projects -- a big national need, according to the White House. - The bank would augment government spending on "Big Dig"-type projects with loans and financing from the private sector. The White House hasn't made it clear how that would work, and what mixture of carrot or stick will define the incentives and rewards of the project, but historically private companies...

The fix is nearly in. There's a ballooning consensus in the nation's capital that America must begin serious spending on infrastructure. There's no need to draw on our maxed-out national credit card to pay for it all, proponents argue. User fees and the creation of an infrastructure bank to leverage private investment will provide an estimated $1 trillion in required upgrades. Led by the Obama White House, the push for infrastructure spending has produced unlikely bedfellows. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO -- intractable foes on most other issues -- are one such pair. Tom Donohue, president and CEO...

      Thursday at a Holland, Michigan plant, President Obama turned on his folksy charm and declared that he would work tirelessly to “Git folks workin’ again” (note to the prez…I’ve been to lovely Holland, MI several times and they don’t talk that way, so there was no need to put on airs).   He again terrified the markets by threatening to propose a whole host of new legislation to make sure the government provides everyone with a job.  [Please, Mr. President, please, stay at Martha's Vinyard until 2012 and spare us any ideas you have rattling around in that oversize brain!]One...

Pummeled by ghastly economic news, President Obama called Monday for more spending and extended tax cuts that he said would help stimulate the economy — but these also could deepen the deficit problems that helped the federal government earn its first-ever debt downgrade last week. The president made the proposals as world stock market indexes were tumbling, and his remarks seemed designed to help the White House regain its political footing by resetting the congressional agenda next month. Mr. Obama said he wants the 2 percent payroll-tax cut extended into next year, the creation of an infrastructure bank by Congress...

The idea of such a bank has been around since the 1990s but has never gained significant attention until now. In March a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that gained the support of the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s leading business lobby, and the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation — two groups on opposite sides of most debates. The BUILD Act, proposed by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Mark Warner, D-Va., would create a national infrastructure bank that would provide loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment in upgrading America’s infrastructure. There are...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is hopeful that his bill to create a National Infrastructure Bank will move through the Senate this year. The bill could be the best shot for those seeking to boost transportation, energy and water infrastructure investment in a Congress focused on “rapacious” spending cuts, Kerry said. The Kerry bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), would create an independent, nonprofit bank that would leverage private investment into infrastructure projects. The bill was introduced in March.

Democrats have designed the financing mechanism to secure the enormous sums needed to complete their transformative central planning initiatives -- the "green" infrastructure projects and smart growth or "livable communities" agenda. It is called the National Infrastructure Development Bank Act of 2009 (HR 2521), sponsored by Congresswomen DeLauro (D-CT) along with 59 co-sponsors. In a govtrack.us interview, Representative DeLauro explains that the "size of the federal deficit" is prohibiting access to needed funds for what she calls a "national growth policy." It seems this central planning enthusiast has determined that tax increases and federal borrowing will not meet the financing...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Public investment funds based in Texas could invest directly in transportation projects through a new corporation under a plan unveiled on Thursday by the state's legislative leaders and the governor. Texas has the nation's biggest road privatization plan but the legislature, reacting to criticisms that developers were enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers, enacted a two-year moratorium. That has crimped road-building projects and led to a series of clashes between the governor and the legislature, who now have agreed on a compromise plan. Developers, including overseas companies, investment banks and private equity funds all vie...