Posted on 12/04/2014 7:40:35 AM PST by 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."
It does make sense. We built a lot of our stuff in the 1950’s so of course things are going to wear out. This was bound to happen at some time. Now seems to be that time.
In china, it depends on which level of government wants the project. Provincial or higher, the Party and Government leaders simply call in everyone involved and tell them how its going to be.
Just think what that 500M that went to Solyndra could have done for our “decaying infrastructure”!
Bears repeating...
I thought this was taken care of in his first term.
He vowed --- in his mau mau undertaker voice...
No problem the five million new illegals will mend the infrastructure like the fifteen million already here.
"I guess those projects weren't quite so shovel ready...ha ha"
What a lying sack of crap he is, and what ignoramuses our population of low information progressive voters is.
That would be the second worse political deal in U.S. history for the net taxpayer.)
NOTHING can ever replace Obamacare as #1.
Reagans's 1986 immigration 'deal' with the lying SOB democratic Congress would be a close 3rd...
Can’t argue with that.
Unfortunately, half of American voters still froth with hatred at anyone who disagrees that their god Hussein can never do anything wrong.
Yep, if he did not pocket the stimulus it would be ok..
Bingo. Yet how quickly people forget.
The streets in our city are awful, but it’s because the idiots in charge are obsessed with so-called economic development and are wasting so much on Chamber of Commerce fantasies like downtown rejuvenation and more and more parks. They even want to spend money on building dams on the river to promote more river development. Meanwhile we have potholes that could swallow a VW Beetle and city employees haven’t even had a cost of living raise in 10 years.
Yep. What have they done with all the money from gas taxes over the decades? They’ve blown it on themselves and their cronies, buying votes, etc. Government ruins everything it touches.
What’s embarrassing is that the US outsourced the Presidency and still settled for a low IQ anti American.
That man is an embarrassment
Even the Moscow airport makes most of ours look sad.
Ofcourse, the over sized human debris shuffling around in pajamas doesn't help.
Any mention of the quality of that construction in China? You know, where the buildings have even literally fallen over into each other?
This guy is such an ass. HE is the real embarrassment.
Cut 5% from every entitlement check sent out until the problems are solved,,,
I understand the last state I lived in was more interested in bike trails then roads, but even at that for the most part the roads were not so bad.
I arrived in Dallas in the 80s to go to school at SMU. There was a turnpike between Dallas and Fort Worth that had just ceased collecting tolls, 75 was a 2-lane death trap/parking lot from 635 to downtown, and the North Dallas Tollway barely made it to North Dallas. I can still remember seeing the "master plan" for I75 and the 635 interchange as a model in Northpark Mall, and thinking to myself that it would never get finished.
You are absolutely right, the building is nonstop. Then again growth demands it, especially in the North. We are getting invaded by blue state refugees, I meet them every day in my work. It wasn't that long ago 121 was a two lane highway surrounded by farms from McKinney to Lewisville. Now that is a major tollway surrounded by development. Its crazy how fast things are changing. Then again, we have a robust economy that demands it, and we can afford it.
As far as Obama's demands, I think the infrastructure Obama imagines includes turtle tunnels, wind farms, and large chunks of cash laundered through the unions into the hands of democrat candidates. He is clueless, and the least qualified man in America when it comes to infrastructure needs of this nation.
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