Obama: US infrastructure ‘embarrassing’

The Hill ^ | December 3, 2014 | Justin Sink

[2ndDivisionVet]

President Obama told corporate leaders Wednesday he was embarrassed by U.S. infrastructure that was "falling behind" countries like China who spent aggressively on construction projects.

"I’d much rather have our problems than China’s problems. That I’m confident about. On the other hand, the one thing I will say is if they need to build some stuff, they can build it," the president said during a Q-and-A with members of the Business Roundtable. "And over time, that wears away our advantage competitively. It’s embarrassing. You know, you drive down the roads and you look at what they’re able to do."

The president said that during his recent trip to China, world leaders worked out of a building that "probably put most of the conference centers here to shame."

"They had built it in a year," he continued. "Now, you got an authoritarian government, you know, that isn’t necessarily accountable. I understand we’re not going to do that. But if they’re able to build their ports, their airports, their smart grid, their air traffic control systems, their broadband systems with that rapidity and they’re highly superior to ours, over time that’s going to be a problem for us."

The president acknowledged that securing funding for infrastructure in the U.S. was politically difficult, and especially because many road and bridge projects were paid for with a gas tax lawmakers were loathe to increase.

"Votes on gas taxes are really tough," Obama said. "Gas prices are one of those things that really bug people."

But Obama said that he hoped that lawmakers could find an infrastructure revenue stream that was "not so politically frightening to members of Congress," and that the issue could be part of discussions in a broader tax reform package.

"It’s probably a good time for us to redesign and think through, what is a sustainable way for us on a regular basis to make the investments we need," the president said.

Obama said that "window" to work on tax reform would likely only exist if lawmakers were able to provide some "certainty" by passing a government funding measure in the lame-duck.

The president said that, although he is encouraged by early statements from Republican leaders, Washington also needed to break the "notion that if you disagree on one thing, then suddenly everybody takes their ball home and they don’t play."

"We have to be able to disagree on some things while going ahead and managing the people’s business and working on the things where we do agree," Obama said. "You know, democracy is messy, but it doesn’t have to be chaos."

Lawmakers appear to be circling around a legislative package that would largely fund the government through the remainder of the fiscal year, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which would only receive funding until the spring.

Republican leaders say doing that would give them leverage to pressure the president to roll back his recently announced executive actions on immigration reform.

Obama said Wednesday he suspected "that temperatures need to cool a little bit in the wake of my executive action."

"Certainly there will be pressure initially within Republican caucuses to try to reverse what I’ve done, despite the fact that what I’m doing I think is exactly the right thing to do," Obama said.

But he thanked the gathering — which included dozens of corporate executives from some of the nation's biggest companies — for their support in his push for comprehensive immigration reform, saying he was grateful for their lobbying efforts.

The president said he was optimistic that congressional leaders would strike a deal, and also signaled tacit support for a bill that would temporarily renew dozens of tax credits. Last week, the White House threatened to veto a long-term package being negotiated by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over concerns it would make some business-friendly credits permanent without doing so for programs benefiting the working poor.

"As a general rule, we are open to short-term extensions of many of those provisions to make sure that all of you are able to engage in basic tax planning, at least for the next couple of years, and are not having to scramble during tax time figuring out what exactly the rules are," Obama said.

But the president said his general preference was a broader package that included both business credits and "provisions that benefit working families."

Obama also said he believed "there is definitely a deal to be done" on corporate tax reform, saying there was "a lot of overlap" with principles outlined by Camp.

Still, the president acknowledged "big hurdles" standing in the way of a tax deal, including resistance to reforms that might eliminate deductions preferred by many corporate leaders. "In the short term, there are going to be some winners and losers, including in this room," Obama said. "The question then becomes, are folks willing and ready to go ahead and make that move for the sake of a simpler, more streamlined, more sensible tax system?"

The president also said Republicans were pushing for cuts to the individual tax code to account for family-owned small businesses, and that could be a stumbling block for members of his own party.

"What we’re not willing to do is to structure a tax deal in which either it blows up the deficit — essentially we can’t pay for the revenue that’s lost — or alternatively, that you get tax shifting from businesses to middle-class and working families," he said. "And so when you start introducing the individual side, it gets more complicated in terms of who’s benefiting, what are the rates, how is it restructured."

[februus]

He’s such a raging faculty-lounge puke! He isn’t smart enough to flush a toilet without detailed instructions for God’s sake. What is he rambling about?!

[jcon40]

Exactly. One of the companies I owned did a lot of government work where I was forced to pay prevailing wage.

The most insane part was being required to fill out government surveys on the rates I paid my employees whos rates were already set by the prevailing wage laws.

the results of the surveys were then what was used to set the rate for the following year

whenever I would ask do you want to know what I normally pay that employee on an non prevailing wage job they said no

[Buckeye McFrog]

The ChiComs have state-funded cities and malls that are completely empty, just to keep the state-driven economy limping along.

[all the best]

If we get rid of progressive policies and government, we could afford super duper infrastructure.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Get ready for 1 TRILLION more debt.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” The ChiComs have state-funded cities and malls that are completely empty, just to keep the state-driven economy limping along.”

Also, a high level bureaucrat payoff.

[PghBaldy]

It is more about kickbacks and union thugs (but you probably are implying that).

[central_va]

I-95 between Richmond and DC IS A JOKE! It s a 90 mile long parking lot all day long. Fix it now!

[11th Commandment]

These libtards love to talk about infrastructure which means more road and bridges as well as repaving perfectly fine roads. The infrastructure projects they loathe are things like pipelines, rail lines, refineries, port expansion, nuclear power, Yucca mountain, etc. These are the infrastructure projects that will improve economic growth.

[tet68]

“What we’re not willing to do is to structure a tax deal in which either it blows up the deficit — essentially we can’t pay for the revenue that’s lost — or alternatively, that you get tax shifting from businesses to middle-class and working families,” he said. “And so when you start introducing the individual side, it gets more complicated in terms of who’s benefiting, what are the rates, how is it restructured.”

Lord, protect us from idiots like this.

Taxes = revenue!

[publius911]

Obama: US infrastructure ‘embarrassing’

Really?

What happened to the "stimulus?" Where did that $1,000,000,000,000 go?

Listen, genius, had you spent that money on actual infrastructure, instead of massive additional welfare, phony alternative energy scams and enriching a few "special" black inner circle crooks, our infrastructure would be noticeably improved.

You reward criminal behavior, and you get more of it!

FAIRY DUST

" So is the data from the Minneapolis Fed a slam-dunk refutation of the so-called stimulus? The White House would disagree with that conclusion. They would argue that it’s wrong to compare this recovery to past recoveries. Instead, you have to look at employment and GDP and then compare those numbers to what they would have been in the absence of the stimulus. And that’s precisely how the Obama Administration came up with the jobs and growth numbers in its recent report."

Some call it 'politics.'
I call it Bullshit*.

*Princeton University Press

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I’ll bet the Chinese don’t have to wait years for NPDES permits before a project is approved.

[TomGuy]

So, what happened to all of that infrastructure funding in those bail-out bills during Obama’s first term?

Hundred of billions was supposed to be allocated.

==

Crony capitalism continues, even under Democrat administrations.

==

But, hey, what can one expect from an administration that spent billions on a healthcare website — that still doesn’t fully work?

[uncitizen]

Is he looking to raise taxes even more? If so, one thing is sure, it’s not for “infrastructure “.

[uncitizen]

If not for the 3 or 4 word slogans, LIVs and the rest of the dumb Americans (yes I said it!) wouldn’t know what they were supposed to think.

[publius911]

The president acknowledged that securing funding for infrastructure in the U.S. was politically difficult, and especially because many road and bridge projects were paid for with a gas tax lawmakers were loathe to increase.

"Votes on gas taxes are really tough," Obama said. "Gas prices are one of those things that really bug people."

Listen, Jackass... Just give us a DETAILED accounting of exactly HOW THOSE GAS TAXES WERE ACTUALLY SPENT, ( BOTH state and federal) for the last 20 years, including your criminal 'stimulus,' and we can resume this conversation...

[griswold3]

800B ‘earmarked’ for infrastructure. Saw all the pretty signs up around projects and we got squat!
Can’t say what I’m thinking.

[TomGuy]

Ahhhh! That is the reason for this WP article:

The gas tax has been fixed at 18 cents for two decades. Now would be a great time to raise it

Thursday, December 04, 2014 8:59:46 AM · by C19fan · 31 replies
Washington Post ^ | December 3, 2014 | Chris Mooney


Nationally averaged gas prices ticked down a little lower today -- yet again -- to $2.75 per gallon. They're now more than 50 cents lower than they were a year ago. So no wonder, at a time like this, the murmur is growing: Maybe Congress ought to think about raising the national gasoline tax. It was last raised, in the year 1993, to 18.4 cents per gallon. That's over 20 years ago, and gas prices at the time were close to the now unimaginable $1.00 per gallon mark. Yet the amount of the gas tax was fixed and not tied...

[Moonman62]

I-95 between Richmond and DC IS A JOKE! It s a 90 mile long parking lot all day long. Fix it now!

...

If the federal government wasn’t growing faster than the economy it wouldn’t be a problem.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Yep. It’s how Republicans like Tom Corbett here in PA always get roped into supporting tax hikes to pay for highway projects. Because it’s VERY popular with all of the Tony Soprano-types we have running around here.