Obama to outline plan to fix crumbling roads, rail, bridges
Source: Reuters
President Barack Obama will fly to St. Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday to propose a four-year, $302 billion plan to create jobs by fixing the nation's crumbling roads, bridges, rail and transportation infrastructure.
Congress faces a September 30 deadline to renew federal funding for transportation programs, a deadline that has made state governors concerned about planning projects that typically run through September and into the fall months.
Obama will propose ending some tax breaks to provide a one-time $150 billion infusion of cash into transportation funding, the White House said.
....
Obama has long called for using savings from tax reform to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, which relies on an 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline to pay for the federal share of spending on roads. But it seems unlikely that a major tax overhaul could pass Congress in an election year.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/26/us-usa-transportation-obama-idUSBREA1P0MO20140226
Republicans plan to counter offer: no money for roads but slashing food stamps and social security instead.
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)Can't wait until they lose the House and the Whitehouse again.
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)I'm grateful that the President is coming here to highlight the need to care for our crumbling infrastructure. We have the money to do this.
Botany
(70,442 posts)You don't use a bridge until it breaks.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)My hotel room actually overlooked the scene. I could see the first responders around the edge of where the bridge used to be. Reporters would do their live reports on the top level of the parking garage right below the window of my room.
Not to sound melodramatic, but I could've been on that bridge when it collapsed. My co-workers and I had just decided to go out to dinner that evening (we had just checked into our rooms an hour or so earlier) and we would've had to cross the bridge to get to the restaurant we had chosen.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)AllyCat
(16,135 posts)Whooda thunk it??
They tax the gasoline to use the system, so lets use that money to repair the system...great idea!
And the Republicans offer...(crickets. cut crickets)
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)deutsey
(20,166 posts)I'm also wondering what tax breaks will be ended, but I hope this gets through. I think the same should be done to help protect people against the fallout of climate change (in particular, along the coasts and in the heartland--e.g., tornadoes), assuming that's even possible now.
ProfessorPlum
(11,253 posts)Divernan
(15,480 posts)Just like legislation, Presidential initiatives may need years and repeated introductions to build up momentum for majority Congressional support. Hope he's not too late on this one.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)In a similar fashion both Cameron, Brown and Blair conveniently ignored updating of the UK's flood defenses until it was too late.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)But then Bush was unlikely to do it in 2008.
As long as we are on the topic, I would like again to thank all the states that refused their share of the stimulus money. Illinois and Wisconsin are currently replacing every railroad bridge between Chicago and Milwaukee thanks in part to the extra money we received due to other states' refusals.
bigdarryl
(13,190 posts)It's not his fault Congress holds the money to do this he can only propose.
SomeGuyInEagan
(1,515 posts)Back when the economy was in better shape and Freespan was talking about fears of PAYING off our national debt *TOO QUICKLY*.
Jesus, best time to dig a well is while you still have water. Our roads and bridges were already hurting 20 years ago.
And the dams and electrical grid are in even worse shape.
ProfessorPlum
(11,253 posts)Rachel Maddow has been making much more noise, and much more sense, about infrastructure than Obama has.
It's his deafening silence on this issue, which should have been a drumbeat, that made me notice the headline in the first place.
sdfernando
(4,923 posts)Congress, or more exactly the House of Representatives, has been the one keeping this from happening. President Obama has pushed this since his first term. Congress owns this not the President.
FSogol
(45,435 posts)Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)Cut Pentagon budget for new weapon systems 25%. Cut all subsidies to oil, coal, gas and nuclear industries. Charge a realistic rate for leases of public land with escalating fees if the land is not actually used.
That should raise about $100 billion a year.
riversedge
(70,047 posts)riversedge
(70,047 posts)Minneapolis is into light rail--expanding to St. Paul. Good things happening in MN vs WI.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/247227101.html
Obama to unveil $300 billion transportation infrastructure plan
Article by: COREY MITCHELL , Star Tribune
Updated: February 26, 2014 - 8:10 AM
The president also plans to announce more funding for the federal grant competition that helped fund the renovation of St. Pauls Union Depot.
24
comments
Washington During his visit to St. Paul on Wednesday, President Obama will unveil plans for a burst of spending on transportation and infrastructure projects, a proposal the White House says will save middle class jobs and provide an overdue investment in the countrys foundation.
Obama will detail his four-year $302 billion proposal that calls for building, fixing or maintaining thousands of miles of roads and rail lines. The president wants to use revenue from closing tax loopholes to raise the necessary funds.
The president will also announce more funding for the federal grant competition that helped fund St. Pauls newly renovated Union Depot, which will serve as the backdrop for his visit. After a $243 million renovation, the Union Depot reopened late in 2012 as a new transit hub that will handle buses, light rail, taxis, bicycles and passenger trains.......
Auggie
(31,130 posts)Aristus
(66,275 posts)We rugged individualists need to get out there with shovels and each of us, all alone, needs to build our OWN roads and bridges and things to get to work and for recreation and stuff like that. That's real American know-how and initiative! None of these government roads for us, no sir! It's in the Constitution1 And the Bible! And...and...and...well, I guess that's about it...
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)I got caught at the RR crossing the other day....1st in line.... and as I watched the big clunky train lumber by with old box cars covered in graffiti, I thought: "This scene is exactly the same as when I was 7 years old." I'm 57. I bet it looked the same in the 1930's.
The US is a joke when it comes to trains/1st world counties.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)in the house will kill it.
On edit: then they will blame Obama for the crumbling infrastructure.
Botany
(70,442 posts)one of the best ideas I have ever seen ..... lots of good jobs, less pollution, cleaner water ways and oceans,
less flooding, less erosion, tons of carbon sequestration, and much more supportive ecosystem .... I cried
when I first saw it but it was killed by those "fucktards."
I think the democrats road to take back the house is to show the American people just how anti American
the republicans really are.
notundecided
(196 posts)effing roadcrew jobs.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)Building tubes to carry sludge across the states in the eyes of the GOP.