Infrastructure in the News: November 4, 2011

NATIONAL NEWS

Bloomberg: Senate Fails to Advance Competing Infrastructure Plans

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-04/senate-fails-to-advance-competing-infrastructure-plans.html

The U.S. Senate blocked two competing proposals to boost construction on roads, bridges and other infrastructure as Democrats and Republicans escalated their fight over President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan.

The Hill: Wasserman-Schultz: Senate defeat of infrastructure bill 'shockingly irresponsible'

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/highways-bridges-and-roads/191701-wasserman-schultz-senate-defeat-of-infrastructure-bill-shockingly-irresponsible-

The Senate was "irresponsible" to vote against the transportation portions of President Obama's jobs bill, Democratic Party Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) said Thursday.

The White House Blog: Five Facts About a National Infrastructure Bank

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/03/five-facts-about-national-infrastructure-bank

Here's how it would work: 1) Congress would appropriate an initial $10 billion in startup money to capitalize the bank. 2) The new bank would identify transportation, energy, and water infrastructure projects that lack funding, offer a clear benefit for taxpayers, and are worth at least $100 million or $25 million for rural projects.

Washington Post: Ronald Reagan supported tax-funded infrastructure spending to create jobs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/ronald-reagan-supported-tax-funded-infrastructure-spending-to-create-jobs/2011/11/02/gIQAmMKtfM_blog.html

I’ve tracked down the 1982 Reagan speech Obama was referring to, and the historical comparison is actually more interesting than this. The speech is right here. In it, Reagan proposed legislation for a new highway and bridge repair program. Reagan did not call for any income tax hikes to pay for the proposal, so in this sense the historical comparison doesn’t work.

CNBC: The Race to Rebuild America's Infrastructure: Channeling George Washington

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45037541

So determined was the general that in 1784, just a few years after the Revolutionary War, he set out on horseback from his Mount Vernon home at his normal pace of five miles per hour. Surveying the land and its people for the best route for the National Road, the nation’s first interstate highway, he journeyed into the Ohio country covering 680 miles in five weeks. The rest is history: infrastructure, in the form of the National Road, made America stronger, safer and richer.