Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

infrastructure

Joe Biden on our country’s infrastructure

From the White House:

Over the past couple years, administration officials have picked up a marker and taken to our “White House white board” to explain how to fix our immigration system, break down how health reform helps your day-to-day life, and outline exactly what our budget’s paying for.

Today, Vice President Joe Biden is taking the pen, and he’s talking about something he knows like the back of his hand:

The current state of our country’s crumbling roads and bridges — and exactly why it’s so important to invest in them right now.


Our roads and bridges do far more than get people and goods from Point A to Point B.

A high-quality transportation system keeps jobs here in America, allows our businesses to grow, and keeps down the prices of household goods.

Our country’s infrastructure crisis isn’t a far-off problem: 65% of our major roads are rated in less than good condition. 25% of our bridges require significant repair or can’t handle today’s traffic.

It looks like Congress is going to act soon to pass a short-term resolution that would continue to fund the projects fixing our roads and bridges — but we need to solve the problem, not just kick the can down the road.

President Obama to Congress: “Don’t just sit there and do nothing. We don’t have time.”

From the White House:

Since our earliest days, the American transportation system has comprised our economic backbone — part of what’s made us great as a nation.

But right now, there’s a big problem with our roads and bridges: Over the years, we’ve invested in them less and less. They haven’t kept up with the needs and demands of our growing economy.

That’s why the President has been clear: Investing in our infrastructure is a top priority, and it’s why he’s put out a long-term plan that shows we can invest in our infrastructure and pay for it in part by closing unfair tax loopholes and making commonsense reforms to our tax system.

With funding for surface transportation running out, and hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk, we simply can’t afford to stop investing in our transportation.

65% of America’s roads are already in less than good condition, and a quarter of our bridges require significant repair or can’t handle today’s traffic.

The President has a plan to fix our nation’s infrastructure for the long run — making targeted investments in the short term and laying the groundwork for increased efficiency down the road. But in the meantime, he’s calling on Congress to avoid a lapse in funding of the Highway Trust Fund.

His long-term plan to invest in rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure would (among other things):

   – Invest $302 billion over four years into our highways, railroads, and transit systems

   – Provide certainty that cities, states, and investors need to break ground on major projects

   – Build a world-class freight network that gets our products out to overseas markets

Click to find out more about the roads and bridges in your state — and what will happen if Congress fails to act.

Penny “wise” and pound foolish: Investing in infrastructure cannot be deferred

From the White House:

White House Blog: A Numbers-Based Case for Why It’s Time to Act on Infrastructure

The United States was once known as a leader in infrastructure, and we’re slipping:

When the American Society of Civil Engineers graded our infrastructure systems last fall, they gave our road and transit systems a D, our bridges a C+, and our levees a D-.

But here’s the real problem: The funding we have in place to fix them is set to run out by fall. That puts at risk more than 112,000 active projects that are currently paving our roads and building our bridges, as well as approximately 5,600 projects that are actively improving our transit systems – not to mention the nearly 700,000 jobs that these collective projects support.

It’s time to get this done. That’s why this week, the President is calling on Congress to pass a bill to put Americans to work repairing our crumbling roads and bridges – avoiding a crisis in the short term, and helping to position our economy for long-term growth.

And today, we’re releasing a new analysis that makes a numbers-based case for exactly why we need to invest in infrastructure right now – and what it’s going to mean for all of us if Congress fails to act.

Take a look at the new analysis that the White House released today – we guarantee you’ll learn something you didn’t know. And when you do, you should pass it on.

More …

Weekly Address: President Obama – Investing in Technology and Infrastructure to Create Jobs

The President’s Weekly Address post is also the Weekend Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

 

From the White House – Weekly Address

In his weekly address, President Obama said he took action this week to launch new manufacturing hubs and expand a competition to fund transformative infrastructure projects. Both are policies aimed at expanding economic opportunity for all by creating jobs and ensuring the long-term strength of the American economy. Congress can boost this effort by passing a bipartisan proposal to create a nationwide network of high-tech manufacturing hubs and taking steps to invest in our nation’s infrastructure – rebuilding our transportation system, creating new construction jobs, and better connecting Americans to economic opportunities.

The Daily F Bomb, Monday 2/4/13

Good morning, Bomber and Meeses and everyone else. These Mondays really come around inexorably, don’t they?

Questions of the day: Of all the liberal causes out there (and they are legion), which is nearest and dearest to your heart? What is your favorite spot in your home to sit and relax? What is your preferred snack food for big televised events (from inaugurations to award shows to sporting events or the new season of whatever show)? Gardens: Wild or formal? Pets: Purebred or mutt?

Twitter Tornado

Most of you implied you did not care who won the Super Bowl last night, but perhaps some watched for the commercials. Or maybe not. Still, it was quite a night, and I have a gazillion tweets that I would love to post, 99% having to do with either the game (some tying it in to politics) or the ads.

There was a Dodge ad with the tag line, “God made a farmer” that was narrated by Paul Harvey. Very rah-rah, isn’t white rural America the best thing ever.” Here are a couple inspired by that ad:

There was a power outage at the Super Dome mid game, right after the half time show. San Francisco was losing badly before the outage. They came back strongly after the outage, though not enough to win.

Maybe more later in the comments.