Breakthrough: Presidential candidates debate transport infrastructure

Breakthrough: Presidential candidates debate transport infrastructure Infrastructure is not a sexy subject that gets much attention in presidential elections, but the subject took center stage Wednesday during the Republican debate in California.
   The nation’s transportation system is straining after decades of deferred maintenance and burgeoning trade and population growth that have not been matched by new highway and transit capacity. Experts predict the federal highway trust fund will be $5 billion in the red by 2009, when Congress is scheduled to approve a new multiyear surface transportation spending plan. A congressionally chartered commission recently issued a report recommending a large hike fuel taxes and reorganization of federal surface transportation programs as Congress spends the next 18 months developing policies for the next reauthorization bill.
   During the debate, former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee endorsed the idea of massive investment in highway infrastructure to spur the flagging U.S. economy instead of using income tax rebates as an economic stimulus.
   Earlier, while campaigning in Florida ahead of that state’s primary last Tuesday, Huckabee suggested that spending federal highway money to widen Interstate 95 from Bangor, Maine, to Miami would do more to help the nation’s economy than the $150 billion stimulus plan agreed to by President Bush and approved by the House this week.
   Responding to a question from a Los Angeles Times reporter, Huckabee said the government will borrow the rebate money from China and then taxpayers will spend the money on consumable merchandise that is most likely imported from that country.
   “My point is, whose economy are we stimulating when we do that? ' If you really want an economic stimulus package, look at what infrastructure investment does. We’ve got a crumbling infrastructure ' and traffic is clogged. And the reason we have a problem is because we’re not addressing it. Every $1 billion we spend on highway construction results in 47,500 jobs. But the fact is that the average American is sitting in traffic 38 hours a year. That’s a full work week ' And the real sad thing is we have bridges falling down on people in the United States of America.”
   Huckabee said infrastructure investment would have much longer-lasting impact than a transitory cash handout.
   “Infrastructure in this country has been neglected whether its our airports, our bridges, our roads and I don’t think there’s a governor in this country that wouldn’t tell you that you’ll create more jobs and you’ll build it with American workers and American concrete and American steel.”
   Mitt Romney agreed that investment in infrastructure makes enormous sense, but that it doesn’t provide the sort of quick stimulus needed to keep the country out of recession.
   On the downside, big infrastructure projects often end up wasting large amounts of taxpayer money when not properly managed. Romney, who was governor of Massachusetts, referred to the $15 billion Big Dig tunnel project in Boston as the “biggest carwash in America” because it leaks badly. ' Eric Kulisch