Infrastructure

Yesterday President Obama called for a $50 Billion dollar investment in America! Channeling the ghost of F.D.R., and called for a sorely needed, \"fundamental overhaul\" of our nations infrastructure.

So we’re already paying for our failure to act. And what’s more, the longer our infrastructure erodes, the deeper our competitive edge erodes. Other nations understand this. They are going all-in. Today, as a percentage of GDP, we invest less than half of what Russia does in their infrastructure, less than one-third of what Western Europe does. Right now, China’s building hundreds of thousands of miles of new roads. Over the next 10 years, it plans to build dozens of new airports. Over the next 20, it could build as many as 170 new mass transit systems. Everywhere else, they’re thinking big. They’re creating jobs today, but they’re also playing to win tomorrow. So the bottom line is our shortsightedness has come due. We can no longer afford to sit still.

Tens of thousands of projects employing hundreds of thousands of workers are already underway across America. We’re improving 40,000 miles of road, and rebuilding water and sewer systems. We’re implementing a smarter, more stable, more secure electric grid across 46 states that will increase access to renewable sources of energy and cut costs for customers. We’re moving forward with projects that connect communities across the country to broadband internet, and connect 31 states via a true high-speed rail network. And what’s more, a great many of these projects are coming in under budget.

EVEYWHERE ELSE THEY ARE THINKING BIG!

Obama is inferring here, that everyone is thinking big and here in America, courtesy of the “tea parties” we are thinking small. Recently

New Jersey\'s Bully Governor Chris Christie, canceled the long-planned and much-needed second rail tunnel under the Hudson River. As Paul Krugman pointed out recently,

Of the $8.7 billion in planned funding, less than a third was to come from the State of New Jersey; the rest would come, in roughly equal amounts, from the independent Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and from the federal government. Even if costs were to rise substantially, as they often do on big projects, it was a very good deal for the state.

But Mr. Christie killed it anyway.

Now lets tie this in to Wisconsin. Recently, Scott Walker brought the insolent gov here for a fundraiser and tied himself into his small minded dangerous thinking.

While not only did President Obama Specifically call for high speed rail and rebuilding 4000 miles of railroad track, he is not alone. economist Dean Baker also calls for a heavy investment in our infrastructure including rail.

We also need to modernize our transportation system, most obviously by increasing the use of mass transit and building the type of high-speed trains that have been operating in Europe and Japan for 40 years. The $50 billion the President has recently proposed for infrastructure spending is a good first step, but more can be done.

Contrast that with Scott Walker, whose new position is pandering to the \"tea party\" and opposing progress.

We probably have never been given a choice between two completely different candidates as we do this year in Barrett V Walker. The question is do we want to join the 21st century and CREATE jobs, or do we want to pander to the select few and make sure the rich can get even richer.

As Krugman so correctly points out:

We have become, instead, a nation whose politicians seem to compete over who can show the least vision, the least concern about the future and the greatest willingness to pander to short-term, narrow-minded selfishness.