Posted on 02/15/2011 2:42:54 PM PST by Qbert
The White House is proposing a whopping $556 billion for a new, six-year surface transportation funding bill that is almost three years overdue. It’s entirely possible that Republicans' total for transportation will be half that amount or less.
Both Republicans and the White House agree on one thing: The long-awaited measure to fund highways, railroads, and bridges should be fully paid for. How to actually come up with the cash, however, will be a matter of considerable debate over the next year. Fuel tax increases are off the table from Republicans’ perspective. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., wants to comb through current funding programs for unspent funds—the equivalent of searching the sofa cushions for loose change. Mica also wants to leverage public-private partnerships to pay for highway maintenance. Even by the most generous estimates, it’s hard to imagine more than $150 billion coming from those sources.
The national highway funding system has been operating on temporary funding extensions since the last surface transportation measure expired in 2009. President Obama has made transportation investment a top priority for the coming year. He is renewing his request for $50 billion in the coming year “to spur job growth and allow states to initiate sound multiyear investments.” That proposal, issued last fall, fell flat in Congress. The White House is also seeking $53 billion over six years for high-speed rail projects and is asking for $8 billion of that money in 2012. The likelihood of getting even a fraction of that sum is slim, considering that rail tops the list of programs that Republicans consider expendable. Still, Obama and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s commitment to high-speed rail demonstrates their willingness to plow forward in spite of the opposition. From the administration's perspective, investing in rail is about jobs and growth. As Vice President Joe Biden put it last week, “There are key places where we cannot afford to sacrifice as a nation, one of which is infrastructure.”
Obama also hasn’t given up on a broader plan for a national infrastructure bank that would be housed in the Transportation Department and dole out money for big projects that use multiple transportation modes and could take many years to complete. Those projects might lie fallow without federal expertise and resources to jump start them, according to DOT officials. Obama is seeking $30 billion over six years for the infrastructure bank.
Republicans should applaud one piece of the administration’s transportation budget proposal—consolidating 55 highway programs down to five. “This would give states and localities greater flexibility to direct resources to their highest priorities,” the budget said.
They were the "shovel ready" jobs. Instead we got another Federal snow job.
I thought those taxes were to pay for roads.
Those funds are in the same lock box as Soc. Sec. and Medicare.
It is supposed to be paid for by the gasoline taxes they have previously collected. Of course, I’m sure those went into the general spend it all fund.
“Didn’t they already fix the roads and bridges in the last Porkulus bill?”
I seem to remember “Turtle tunnels”. Basically tunnels that allows indigenous turtles to pass safely under highways. Thousands of expensive signs advertising the America Reinvestment Act. Union kickbacks, cash for clunkers and housing credits. Not a whole lot of commitment to the finds following the Minnesota I-35W bridge.
Can we get our cash back for this clunker?
Pray for America
“Can we get our cash back for this clunker?”
I heard guys compare Obama’s spending to drunken sailors, but of course that is an insult to sailors, they eventually run out of money and go back to their ship and sleep it off. I would more likely compare to a drunken family man who went to Vegas with his family, and used the deed to his house, the title of his car, and maxed out every credit card he had to finance his 48 hour gambling spree.
Hmm looks like he’s loading up the union jobs for them to ‘return’ the money to him for 2012 elections.
Obviously they stole those funds for other Pork projects instead. But hey! What's 6 hundred Billion dollars more these days, going to matter anyway?
MaObama has seen the light and is now suddenly a Budget Hawk. These aren't taxes, they are “INVESTMENTS”!
Well, at least spending on “post Roads” is explicitly Constitutional . . .
We can’t trust Obama and the Democrats to do it without massive corruption, of course, but at least this is Constitutional. You could probably even stretch it to cover “high speed rail” if you squint hard enough.
Doesn’t make it a smart thing to do. But at least it’s Constitutional.
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