There is $105 billion total for infrastructure in the jobs legislation proposed by the president, but $45 billion of that amount goes to modernizing schools and rehabilitating vacant property in blighted neighborhoods. The plan also includes $10 million to capitalize a National Infrastructure Bank that would leverage federal funds by making loans to states, local governments and private investors that put up money of their own for projects.
Obama challenged Congress to pass the bill, saying that infrastructure components of the proposal are backed by business and labor, and have been supported in the past by Democrats and Republicans alike.
‘Pass this jobs bill, and we can put people to work rebuilding America. Everyone here knows we have badly decaying roads and bridges all over the country. Our highways are clogged with traffic. Our skies are the most congested in the world. It’s an outrage,’ he said in a televised address before a joint session of Congress.
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‘There are private construction companies all across America just waiting to get to work,’ he said, describing a bridge between Ohio and Kentucky that supports a major truck route as the kind of project that needs to be completed to help goods movement and mobility.
Addressing the public’s mistrust in government to wisely spend taxes, Obama reiterated that he opposes the use of congressional earmarks for funding local projects and that his administration is working to reduce red tape that delays projects from being constructed.
Last week he said some federal agencies have begun to identify high-priority infrastructure projects already in the pipeline that can be started sooner by accelerating permitting decisions and reviews, something business groups and state transportation officials have long advocated.
The National Infrastructure Bank will make loan decisions on whether a project fills a great need and how much good it will do for the economy, Obama said.
‘Ask yourselves — where would we be right now if the people who sat here before us decided not to build our highways, not to build our bridges, our dams, our airports?’ he said, referring to the transportation system’s neglect the past three decades.
A reauthorization bill for surface transportation programs has not even been drafted by Congress in the two years since the last multi-year spending blueprint expired. Transportation programs have been frozen at the levels in 2009, as transportation stakeholders press for policy reforms and new fund-raising and financing techniques to supplement inadequate fuel taxes. Most politicians are opposed to raising the gas and diesel tax.
The president’s jobs plan also includes tax cuts for small businesses to encourage hiring, an extension of unemployment benefits and programs to train the long-term unemployed, cuts payroll taxes for employees, aid to states to help them retain teachers, firefighters and policemen.
Obama said he will propose in about a week spending cuts that will pay for the stimulus program.
America needs to take other steps beyond job creation in the short-term to compete in the global economy, Obama said. He called for the ratification of free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia and said his administration is providing incentives for companies to develop engineers and develop technologies in industries of the future, such as electric batteries. ‘ Eric Kulisch
