Stimulus bill fight enters wild mode
The Take Away, a public radio show produced by WNYC and Public Radio International, has an interesting piece up today. Andrea Bernstein reports that Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN) and Lawrence Summers, a close economic advisor to President Obama, had a shouting match over how much money to include for transit in the stimulus bill. Here’s the written report by Andrea Bernstein.
The show also reports that because the stimulus bill uses the existing formula system for transportation, states with large numbers of highways, such as Wyoming, receive far more per person than more denseley populated states like New York or Michigan. It’s an interesting report – listen to it.
Why, again, is Larry Summers making the decisions about the transit component of this bill?
Meanwhile, OpenLeft (via CAHSR Blog) reports that three amendments are being considered this afternoon for the stimulus bill that would increase transit dollars. We should know more about the vote by this evening…
2 replies on “James Oberstar and Larry Summers Engaged in a Shouting Match?”
Thanks for pointing this out. I kind of wish it would’ve escalated to fisticuffs, just so the mass transit funding story would really hit the national news. It wouldn’t be the best press, but I know a lot of mass transit riders would be on Oberstar’s side.
Peter DeFazio (D-OR: Springfield) might like to wack Summers in the jaw too.
http://www.blueoregon.com/2009/01/defazio-larry-summers-is-antiinfrastructure-the-president-is-not.html
It was nice to see transit being discussed on TV.