Eisenhower redux

President-elect Barack Obama cast himself in the mold of predecessor Dwight D. Eisenhower in his Saturday radio address, emphasizing again that a large piece of his economic recover plan will focus on fixing and modernizing the nation's road system.

   Eisenhower persuaded Congress, based on his World War II experience as supreme allied commander in Europe, to pass legislation for an interstate highway system. He envisioned the expressway network connecting all regions of the country as a key to national defense. The 47,000-mile system has been instrumental in helping increase economic productivity and mobility. But during the past 30 years, investment in federal highways has shrunk to the point that needed repairs are behind schedule and little capacity has been added to meet rising population and freight growth.

   Fifty-two years later, Obama is resurrecting Eisenhower's vision of using infrastructure spending as a down payment to help U.S. competitiveness in a global economy.

   We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We'll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we'll set a simple rule -- use it or lose it. If a state doesn't act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they'll lose the money, Obama said.

   The president-elect has said he wants to create 2.5 million jobs by investing in new schools, energy-efficient building retrofits, broadband and clean energy infrastructure, and computerize hospital records in addition to roads, bridges and water treatment systems.

   On Friday, the Commerce Department reported that companies slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years. Almost 2 million jobs have now been lost in the year-long recession and the unemployment rate is now at 6.7 percent, up from 6.5 percent. The numbers do not reflect several hundred thousand other people who analysts believe have stopped searching for work.

   General Motors added to the trend, saying it planned to eliminate 2,000 more jobs as it cuts shifts at three car factories.

   The Federal Highway Administration estimates that 35,000 jobs are created for every $1.25 billion in transportation spending.

   Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress envision an immediate injection of infrastructure spending to help kick-start the economy and address immediate needs, followed by long-term investments to upgrade the surface transportation system. The National Governors Association is seeking $136 billion in short-term aid for projects already in the pipeline.

   The American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials on Friday identified 5,148 shovel-ready projects that could go to contract within 90 days. Budget shortfalls have forced state governments to postpone bridge, safety, pavement and other projects. Texas had 852 projects worth more than $6 billion on its wish list, more than any other state.

   Obama, interviewed Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, reiterated that projects identified as candidates to receive money from an expected $500 billion-plus stimulus package would still be placed under a lens to prove their merit.

   We're going to have to prioritize it and do it not in the old traditional politics first wave. What we need to do is examine what are the projects, where we're going to get the most bang for the buck, how are we going to make sure taxpayers are protected. You know, the days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over, he said.

   We believe investing a significant amount in transport infrastructure is smart public policy, Bruce Carlton, president of the National Industrial Transportation League, told reporters during the association's annual conference in Fort Lauderdale last month.

   If the state DOTs didn't have projects ready to go -- completed engineering, project design, environmental impact statements -- then I'd have a different view maybe of using the money in a stimulus bill, he said.

   Obama has talked about signing an economic recovery plan into law the day he takes office, but the Washington Post reports that Republican opposition makes expedited passage less likely. House Republicans are urging tax cuts instead and Senate Republicans have expressed concern about adding to the deficit with a massive spending bill

Source: American Shipper