Obama to Press for Infrastructure [View All]

[kpete]

Source: New York Times

Obama to Press for Infrastructure
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: October 11, 2010

WASHINGTON – President Obama will join mayors, governors and current and former transportation secretaries on Monday to argue for a major initiative to repair and modernize the nation’s roads, rails and air systems, just weeks before an election that is all but certain to expand the size of his Republican opposition in Congress.

A new report from economists at the Treasury and Mr. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers concludes that this is the “optimal time” to invest in public infrastructure because of high unemployment and lower prices in the construction industry, which has been hit harder than any other sector by the puncturing of the bubble in housing and commercial real estate.

Yet this is hardly an optimal time politically for such initiatives. Congress showed little appetite in recent months for additional stimulus spending at a time of high deficits. While Friday’s monthly jobs report confirmed a slowdown in already anemic private-sector hiring, and stoked calls from cities, states, business groups, unions and many economists for more federal help, Congress is out until after the elections. And then, a lame-duck Congress is unlikely to tackle any but essential business – especially if Republicans make big gains or even attain a majority in either the Senate or House when they reconvene in January.

Mr. Obama and two Cabinet members – Ray LaHood, his transportation secretary and a former Republican congressman, and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner -- will meet at the White House with a group that includes former transportation secretaries Norman Y. Mineta, a Democrat who served in the George W. Bush administration, and Samuel K. Skinner, a Republican who was in George H. W. Bush’s cabinet.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/us/politics/12obama.html

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mr. pete and i think that Infrastructure sets the stage for a BETTER America...
this pleased us both very much this morning with our coffee, kpete