Dems Win On Highway Trust Fund, Preserve Jobs
Democrats on the Hill have won a significant victory, as the White House and congressional Republicans baulked at voting to lose hundreds of thousands of construction jobs at the same time as they were shoring up financial insitutions.
Two months after the White House called a highway trust fund rescue plan a "gimmick" and threatened a presidential veto, President Bush is expected to sign legislation infusing $8 billion into the financially teetering fund that supports road and bridge projects around the country.
That change of heart came after the administration acknowledged last week that the trust fund, which derives its revenues from the federal gas tax, was going broke much faster than anticipated and that Washington would have to begin delaying payments to states for construction work as early as this month.
That could have meant the loss of thousands of high-paying construction jobs just weeks before the election.
"I'm glad the Republicans came to their senses — you can't play politics with 300,000 jobs when we're in a recession," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The House on Thursday voted 376-29 on the measure to transfer $8 billion from the Treasury's general fund to shore up the 52-year-old highway trust fund. The Senate approved the measure by a voice vote on Wednesday after several Republicans who had held up the legislation for months agreed to let it go forward.
... The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, using Transportation Department figures, said that without the fix federal highway aid to the states would drop from $35 billion in the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30 to $24 billion in the next fiscal year 2009. It estimated that 379,000 jobs would be lost without congressional action.
Yes, this will be deficit spending. At this point of the Bush administration's dying days, pretty much everything is deficit spending. But the situation, I feel, is analogous to the "kitchen table" problem of being $1,000 in the hole on your credit card. At that point, spending a couple of bucks to take the bus to work and earn a paycheck is vastly preferable to just throwing those bucks at the massive debt. A small amount of deficit spending to keep people in jobs, especially blue-collar workers, and so stimulate the economy from the bottom up is far better than not doing so.
That the White House and Republican legislators didn't see it that way and were quite prepared to shaft those workers until Democrats started connecting that to the massive financial bailout currently underway speaks volumes about where their true loyalties lie.
So, hows that gas tax holiday working for you Sen. McCain?
Nimrod
At this very moment, Govt/Bushevik officials are trying to work out the details to save Lehman Bros from going tits up.
WASHINGTON - The financial world held its collective breath Saturday as the U.S. government scrambled to help devise a rescue for Lehman Brothers and restore confidence in Wall Street and the American banking system.
Deliberations resumed Saturday as top officials and executives from government and Wall Street tried to find a buyer or financing for the nation's No. 4 investment bank and to stop the crisis of confidence spreading to other U.S. banks, brokerages, insurance companies and thrifts.
Failure could prompt skittish investors to unload shares of financial companies, a contagion that might affect stock markets at home and abroad when they reopen Monday.
Options include selling Lehman outright or unloading it piecemeal. A sale could be helped along if major financial firms would join forces to inject new money into Lehman. Government officials are opposed to using any taxpayer money to help Lehman.
An official from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Saturday's participants included Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox. The New York Fed official asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks.
Citigroup Inc.'s Vikram Pandit, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jamie Dimon, Morgan Stanley's John Mack, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Lloyd Blankfein, and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s John Thain were among the chief executives at the meeting.
So we have to fucking beg for basically the same amount of money we piss away in Iraq per month????????????
I invite everyone to come to Minneapolis and see the beautiful new bridge, brought to us after begging for the funds to fill the hole in 35W.
No matter where you live, good luck with YOUR bridge, which most Americans cross at least once a day. Try not to shit your pants every time you have to cross one.
Are not federal and state sale taxes applied to the selling price of gasoline or are they straight excise taxes. I would have thought rising oil prices would have generated a windfall for the trust even with reduced consumption.
There are so many bridges all over the country in need of repair and potholes in the roads that you could lose a compact car in.
Would have been pretty embarrassing if another bridge collapsed.
We can build up the infrastructure of Iraq, a country sitting on billions of cash yet can't find the money for our own country. That's the Republican way.
If they say Country first, they mean the country of Iraq.
That's great news the Chinese will lend us the money to buy their steel. Is this a great country or what? Well since we doubled the total national debt bailing out freddie and fanny what's a few more billion,don't worry the kids are good for it.
I forget. How many people died in that bridge collapse in the city where the Republicans held their convention?
I like this plan. Now, I'm not a fan of deficit spending either but in this case it seems warranted. Our infrastructure is no bad shape as we all know. By using these funds the U.S. can repair and possibly even streamline our transportation system which would be more economical in the long run. Not to mention the fact that it will create more jobs.
As deficit spending goes this isn't so bad. It beats buying more stone crosses for Arlington.
I hope the democratics bragg about it. It saved jobs. Country first here
Peter G @ 4:
I believe that the taxes are "X cents per gallon sold," as opposed to a sales tax that is "X percentage of the sale price." Since Americans are buying fewer gallons, the feds are taking in less tax money. Any one with a better grasp on the situation, PLEASE correct me.
Did McKeating vote?? I'd say probably not since he missed more votes than any other Senator in the United States. Also, a yes vote wouldn't look good to his base who don't give a shit about the working folk of this country.
I understand that McCain./Bush are not giving the same attention to Hurricane Ike as they did to Hurricane Gustov (which happened during their convention) with the destruction coming to south Texas Mahablog wonders if this inattention will possible change the coming political landscape.
Does it still have to pass in the senate?
My, my, my, the Repugs must be peeing their pants. They know they are going the way of the Whigs. I never thought they would cave so easily. Make's me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
The only reason they let it get through is because it's an election year. If it had not been they would have said fuck America like they always do.
You see they will get a bigger cut if they funnel it through halliburton.
I tell you republicans hate the American people, but they love our money!
Why do you think they got into pollitics in the first place. All the republican talk of service, just means serving themselves with our money!
"financially teetering fund that supports road and bridge projects around the country."
Doesn't Bush realize that he and his family cross those bridges too?
someguy @ 17:
Yes but they mostly fly over them.
I'd really like to see our money slowly shifted away from the highway system, as automobile usage as we know it has clearly reached - and probably passed - its zenith. You'd get a lot more bang for your buck by upgrading the nation's rail system and expanding high speed rail passenger service.
Who passed that law that prohibits states from repairing their own bridges?
mccain:senator obama won't give relief to people..i just give alittle 'tax holiday'.........ill advised clown...pandering
again....maybe i can buy there votes
TobyWanKinobi @ 20:
Has anyone ever called you the world's most stupid douchebag? Since about noon today, that is?
You know those highways identified by names such as I-80 and US 1? Those are FEDERAL HIGHWAYS, paid for largely with, but not solely, federal funds. These roads promote interstate commerce- THE GENERAL WELFARE.
What, don't you subscribe to the Constitution of the United States of America?
james Ratliff @ 18:
Yeah but not their family members.......the Bush twins don't have their own planes do they?
Peter G @ 4:
It's the other way around.
Fed Fuel tax is like 18 cents per gallon, 24 for diesel, so when fuel prices go up and driving goes down (50 million fewer miles in the last year than previous) the trust fund comes up short.
And it's even more complex than simply funding the highway projects. The states sell bonds to pay for highway construction and then pay back those bonds from money they get from the Feds. When there's a shortfall from the Feds (never happened before) the states are on the hook for billions of dollars of debt secured by these anticipated federal dollars. Note the word is "anticipated" and not "guaranteed."
States worry over bonds backed by federal money
MountainMan23 @ 24:
1) "High-paying construction jobs" ??? Maybe in New York. Down here in Texas, most of the guys working these "high-paying jobs" are from south of the border. I bet they're not earning the big bucks. Who does? The owners and top execs of the highway construction companies, who, traditionally, have been been big financial supporters of .... the GOP.
2) $8 billion is chump change. Hell, $80 billion is chump change to this administration. They just object to the whole concept on spending ANY money on the public welfare. If it was being used to build prisons, that would be different!
Horst Wessel @ 27:
Don't they still have chain gangs in Texas?
Nothing like an election to force our polticians into at least pretending to care about working class families
SouthernYankee @ 10:
This current crop of Democrats? HA! Don't hold your breath!!
That's just a tad over three weeks' spending in Iraq.
Paul @ 31:
Yes, but then the money wouldn't go to war profiteers.
Let's say it's the future and most cars are electric, how will the money be raised for highway and bridge repair? Will it be through more toll booths, higher taxes on electricity, electricity meters for cars?
AdoringFan @ 11:
You are correct. It's X cents per gal. There are federal and state taxes.
I don't really like this idea however. If it's going into the highways, the users should pay for it. This is a big subsidy for the trucking industry, and why should the government be promoting inefficient transportation? Rail transit saves millions of gallons of fuel over trucking and at the same time reduces pollution. $8 billion in additional money for highways, but if Amtrak wants a few hundred million to maintain and upgrade hundreds of miles in of rail the northeast (which gets used for some freight as well as passenger service), that's awful. Even worse if it's spent on the long distance trains.
That the White House and Republican legislators didn’t see it that way and were quite prepared to shaft those workers until Democrats started connecting that to the massive financial bailout currently underway speaks volumes about where their true loyalties lie.
And this surprises you how?
This is the kind of economic stimulus that makes sense -- money toward needed projects and employing American workers at the same time. Neglecting infrastructure requires more expensive repairs/reconstruction later. Probably makes too much sense to appeal to the Repiglicans. (It's also a little FDR-ish.)
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