Correction, Please!
Subsidizing Rattlebrained Transportation Policies
The blur: Virtually everyone is in agreement that the transportation infrastructure that the federal government is in charge of is becoming decrepit, but there are still lots of reasons why the FAST Act, which would fund repairs, should have been rejected.
Item: The Associated Press reported on December 3, 2015: “After years of stymied efforts to address the nation’s aging and congested highways and transit systems, Congress found the sweet spot for passage [of the FAST Act] on Thursday — a 5-year, $305 billion bill laden with enough industry favors, parochial projects, safety improvements and union demands to gain overwhelming support. The bill was approved 359 to 65 in the House, and 83 to 16 in the Senate.”
The bill, the AP went on to say, “boosts highway and transit spending and assures states that federal help will be available for major projects. It doesn’t include as much money or last quite as long as many lawmakers and the Obama administration would have liked. Nor does it resolve how to pay for transportation programs in the long term. Despite that, the 1,300-page bill was hailed by industry and public officials as a major accomplishment that will halt the cycle of last-minute short-term fixes that have kept the federal Highway Trust Fund teetering on the edge of insolvency for much of the past eight years.”
Item: Also on December 3, TheHill (Washington, D.C.) reported: “The 1,300-page bill, paid for with gas tax revenue and a package of $70 billion in offsets from other areas of the federal budget, calls for spending approximately $205 billion on highways and $48 billion on transit projects over the next five years. It also reauthorizes the controversial Export-Import Bank’s expired charter until 2019.”
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