March 8th, 2010 |
» The European Investment Bank and Build America Bonds could serve as a model, but that strategy moves the burden of infrastructure spending to the next generation.
If you haven’t been following lately, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for members of Congress to get anything done. In terms of transportation, this fact is no laughing matter, because the nation’s ground transport systems is running on hot air — deficit spending — for lack of agreement about how to pull together financing for the next planned six-year transportation bill, now a year late.
What was once considered
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February 1st, 2010 |
» President reaffirms trust in potential of national infrastructure bank, continues interest in high-speed rail.
As expected, the Administration released its budget for fiscal year 2011 today. The Department of Transportation has been awarded with a total of $78.8 billion in expenditures, compared to $77.0 billion enacted by the Congress in fiscal year 2010.
Transportation spending did not suffer much from the spending freeze Mr. Obama proposed for the overall non-defense discretionary budget in his State of the Union address last week. Nor, however, did it see much of an increase. Transportation spending has been relatively flat
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January 26th, 2010 |
» President Obama’s appeal to fiscal conservatives is likely to result in little substantial change, but it’s exactly the wrong message.
On Wednesday, President Obama will give his State of the Union address to the Congress, and next Monday he will release his proposed budget for fiscal year 2011. Late yesterday, staff aids leaked the news that the speech would include a pledge to veto any budget that didn’t freeze non-defense and non-security discretionary spending at $447 billion. The freeze would be set for three years, followed by spending increases limited by inflation. The goal would be to reduce federal
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April 17th, 2009 |
Proposal reveals a little – and a lot – about how the administration wants to proceed with its rail programs
As many of you commented in the previous, and unfortunately inadequate, post on the administration’s high-speed rail strategic plan, the report – though significant – doesn’t tell us all that much more about how the U.S. government will spend the $8 billion approved for fast rail by Congress in the stimulus bill. On the other hand, I want to point out that the administration never promised such information: for god’s sake – the states haven’t even submitted their proposals for the use
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April 7th, 2009 |
Former mayor will lead future high-speed rail programs
National Corridors reports that Joseph “Joe” Szabo, currently Illinois state director of the United Transportation Union, will be the President’s pick for chief of the Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees freight rail movements, Amtrak, and most commuter railroads. Mr. Szabo is currently serving on the FRA’s Rail Safety Advisory Committee and before that he was mayor of the Village of Riverdale, IL.
Mr. Szabo has a strong background as an on-the-ground railroad worker, having been an employee of the Illinois Central and then of Metra, which is the public agency that oversees suburban Chicago’s commuter
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March 7th, 2009 |
Developing a broader vision for how to reshape the economy
Last month, I wrote that we’d soon need a second economic stimulus because the first one, at $800 billion, is simply too small to deal with the mounting crisis that’s quickly tearing down the capitalist system. The unemployment rate increased to 8.1% in February, a figure that does not include the millions of Americans who have simply decided to stop looking for work nor the many more who are working part-time even though they’d like – and need – full-time employment. Paul Krugman and and Josh Marshall at TPMDC explore the problem,
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