A full-scale assault on Americas infrastructure needs, by contrast, would require more than $200 billion a year through 2020 over and above what were already spending, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Economic Policy Institute, but would create and sustain more than 3 million new jobs. Infrastructure spending not only creates construction jobs, but establishes the foundation for economic growth decades into the future. The need is dire. Talk to the average owner of a manufacturing business, and youll hear that their most pressing demand is for an improved transportation network. U.S. public infrastructure spending as a share of the economy has plummeted since 2009, under pressure from budget-cutters in Congress; its now lower than its been since 1995. (See accompanying graphic.) The harvest can be measured in news items about potholed highways, overstretched ports and airports, and collapsing bridges -- the latest an interstate bridge collapse on Monday that took the life of a construction worker. The civil engineering society, in its latest report card, gave Americas infrastructure a D+. The governments highway trust fund, which pays for interstates and other transportation projects, is depleted because Americans are driving less and using more fuel-efficient vehicles, reducing federal gas tax revenues. Congress has shored up the fund with a series of annual appropriations, but thats no way to run an infrastructure program. Obamas 2013 proposal to trade a revision of the corporate tax for infrastructure spending went nowhere in Congress. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who now commands a majority, dismissed it as a plan for tax-and-spend liberals. Thats a knee-jerk partisan reaction that wont do in todays world. Obama observed Tuesday that 21st century businesses need 21st century infrastructure—modern ports, stronger bridges, faster trains and the fastest Internet. Democrats and Republicans used to agree on this. Why shouldnt they agree still? latimes/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-obamas-best-applause-20150121-column.html
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 05:01:38 +0000
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