Obama to Press for Infrastructure

[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

[xchrom]

1. While this both good news and necessary - timing

Is everything.

Pushing on this some months ago would probably have
Garnered larger support in congress.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.:thumbsup:

[earcandle]

3. Forget about politics. That is just words. Lets have investments in infrastructure, technology,

and education.  I am behind this. 

[Bonobo]

4. We could have got alot of it done already if we had had a "make works" project

bailout instead of just a banking/wallstreet bailout.

[go west young man]

5. All but certain.

Man the New York Times has gone down in stature. The literally just tow the Republican line
these days. They must be prepping to sell their diminishing rag to Rupert Murdoch.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

6. This should have been done in the first 100 days.

Hell, this *should* have been done under Clinton when the economy was actually growing across the board and the deficit was shrinking - anyone else remember Greenspan testifying about his fear that we might pay off our nation's debt too fast in 2000 or 2001? Grrrrrrr ....

But, this could have and should have been floated in the first 100 days. It could have been tied to a jobs bill and additionally as part of TARP, requiring the financial institutions to agree to give loans to small businesses (such as construction) as part of taking the money.

If it had been - just floated and pushed (even if Republicans blocked it or threatened to block it, which is the same thing in today's Congress) - the Dems might not be looking at a hard fight to keep both houses in a month.

It's the economy, stupid. And the middle and lower classes are always the economy.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Yes it should have.

The first thing Obama did should have been a bailout of the American workforce instead of bailing out banksters and wall street gangsters.

Edit...And Obama needs to get rid of every republican anywhere near the White House. Even the three little pigs learned after a couple of disasters that you just can't trust the wolves.

[jpak]

8. Yeah - he should have extended unemployment for people who ran out of weeks

He should have subsided COBRA for the unemployed

He should have added $100 a month to unemployment checks

He should have had a $1500 rebate for folks to by a wood stove or a pellet furnace

He should have given folks $3000 to weatherize their homes.

He should have saved the folks of hundreds of thousands of teachers, cops and firefighters

He should have given first-time home buyers a big fat tax rebate

He should have given car buyers a big fat tax credit when they traded in their gas guzzlers

He should have given homeowners a big fat tax credit for installing solar energy devices

but he didn't

Oh wait.....he dd

never mind

[Hubert Flottz]

10. He did all those things and the roads are still shot to hell.

Look at the jobs that 700 billion could have created and look at how much better off the country would be.

The thing that really sucks, is that Obama is calmly taking all the blame, for the Wall Street Bailout that BUSH and his crew started. I rarely hear that mentioned these days.

A bill that would have taken some or all of the money that was paid back supposedly, by the banksters and investing on infrastructure rebuilding would have been great, but the republicans have done everything in their power to see that Obama fails. Even though Obama failing means that the entire country very well may STILL fail.

The fact that Obama even thought about Judd Greg for a cabinet post makes me want to fucking vomit.

[wordpix]

11. +1 but better late than never - infrastructure is literally crumbling on E. Coast

[ThomCat]

16. Yes. It should have been.

Why the wait? Why only now?


I'm going to be cynical and make a prediction, given that Obama has already shown that he does not bail out "the people," only corporations.

I'll bet that Obama will not do anything like the the government did with the WPA, REA, and other New Deal agencies in the 30s, having people and work crews working for the government to build infrastructure.

He'll give money directly to corporations to do the work, and expect those corporations hire people. He won't even give them strict regulations for using that money, like he did with the auto industry. That will leave it to corporations to set the work rules and standards, and make sure people are hired on a temp basis without benefits. It will leave them able to give their executives high pay and bonuses while hiring workers workers for peanuts.

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Sounds about right.

[Myrina]

18. Agreed.

Then the banks wouldn't have needed a bailout because there would have been enough capital flowing up from earners to plump up their reserves. Same for state and local gov'ts who's tax coffers would have been replenished by these local jobs.

D'oh?

[pasto76]

9. Rate of Commerce will reduce to pre-national highway system levels if we dont invest

there is a great show on learning channel I think, and its name escapes me. Good detail about how bad our infrastructure is these days. Really good point was made that manufacturers (you know, one of the giant foundation blocks of a good economy) consider how fast product X will get to the port. Most of it is moved by truck these days, and China has a much faster time than the US. They said commercial trucking will double in the next 15-20 years (imagine the increase in car traffic) and will choke our interstates. Here in Colorado, we still drive on eisenhower era highways. Its going to be a mess.

[HereSince1628]

12. We REALLY need that pipeline from Treasury to Wall St enlarged

and all the nation's foreclosure superhighways need Speed-Pass!

After that, communities should be well and truly able to sell their utilities to foreign investors who can manage them properly.

[elleng]

13. Excellent, and long past due.

Now lets hear from the 'nattering nabobs of negativism!'

[Doctor_J]

14. Uh-oh

A big-government socialist Muslin takeover of the transportation industry

Tonight on Big Media

[Skink]

15. Is this where the fed can be helpful?

they probably don't even need congressional approval to issue a trillion in public works bonds.

[DesertFlower]

19. K&R. nt

[newscott]

20. Umm dude, guess what?

They are already doing this in MA. They have been working on every single highway I use to commute to work for the better part of 20 years. They even have signs put up everywhere now bragging about it. They'll never finish.

[Thor_MN]

21. Take a quarter of military spending, give the displaced personnel jobs in construction and it's paid...

for and then some.