Obama To Back $50 Billion Infrastructure Plan For Roads, Rail, Air Travel

Well, this is definitely a step in the right direction.  It should have been part of a larger stimulus in the first place.  Of course, it’s probably too little too late.

I still think President Obama blew his FDR Moment when he could have given hope and heart to the county, started to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and started to turn the economy around all at the same time if he had stood up to the GOP and pushed through a visionary, larger stimulus bill in the first place.

Political timidity and an impractical need to seek a bi-partisianship, which the Republicans will never support, has quite possibly undermined his presidency to the point that he’s lost his audience and his chance at greatness.

Now my fear his lack of coherent message and vision and political guts has given the short sighted, ill-informed, petulant American Electorate the impetus to irrationally vote the Republican’s back into power…

God help us all if that happens….

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is asking Congress to approve at least $50 billion in long-term investments in the nation’s roads, railways and runways in a pre-election effort to show he’s trying to stimulate the sputtering economy.

The infrastructure investments are part of a package of targeted proposals the White House announced on Monday. With November’s elections for control of Congress approaching, Obama planned to discuss the proposal later Monday at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee.

The proposals would require congressional approval, which is highly uncertain at a time when many legislators and voters are worried about adding to federal deficits that are already sky-high.

Even if lawmakers could pass a bill in the short window between their return to Capitol Hill in mid-September and the elections, it’s unlikely the spending would give the economy a significant boost by the time voters head to the polls.

While the proposal calls for investments over six years, the White House said spending would be front-loaded with an initial $50 billion to help create jobs in the near future.

The goals of the infrastructure plan include: rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads; constructing and maintaining 4,000 miles of railways, enough to go coast-to-coast; and rehabilitating or reconstructing 150 miles of airport runways, while also installing a new air navigation system designed to reduce travel times and delays.

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