Obama: I'm Sure Boehner 'Will See The Light' On Infrastructure Bill 7JUL11

THE gop / tea-bagger hypocrisy goes on and on......government spending is waste unless it is in their districts. Pres Obama and the Democrats need to call them out on this, and to ask them where is all the private investment and where are all the new jobs extending the bush era tax cuts and keeping all the tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate America were supposed to bring???? Pres Obama lost a golden opportunity to slam this home to the American public when Rep john boehner tweeted his question "Where are all the jobs?" Pres Obama's answer should have been "Ask all the wealthy, the wall street financiers and corporate America what they have done with their tax break extension". From HuffPost...
WASHINGTON -- Recent changes in rhetoric from Republicans on Capitol Hill have provided a sliver of hope about the prospects of getting an infrastructure bill through Congress.
Several freshmen House Republicans have either publicly stated or privately pushed for enhanced federal spending in their home districts. The most recent revelation came when Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) told a town hall last week that the president's stimulus package -- which he had criticized on the road to election -- would have been better had it "taken a lot bigger chunk of that money and put it into infrastructure."
It was a relatively rare acknowledgment from a GOP member that targeted spending on, say, roads and bridge repair, has a positive economic impact. But it's exactly the type of message that some Republican freshmen have been sending privately.
Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) petitioned the Department of Transportation, for instance, to spend $13 million for a port project in his home district. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) asked the department for $4.365 million for airport runway repairs for his district. Rep. Steven Southerland (R-Fla.) wrote a letter to the department encouraging it to guarantee a loan for the company Boldini, S.A. to build offshore supply vessels at a shipyard in Panama City, Fla. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) pressed the department to send funds for high-speed rail construction to New York after they had been rejected by Gov. Rick Scott of Florida.
All of these efforts to secure funds were revealed after The Huffington Post obtained the records of communications between freshmen members and the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Transportation through a Freedom of Information Act request. Several offices did not return requests for comment. Those that did -- Fincher's and Johnson's -- both stressed that investments in these specific infrastructure projects were not the same type of wasteful spending that they had wailed against for many months.
"There’s a difference between smart federal spending and the reckless, irresponsible waste of tax dollars the American people are fed up with," said Rep. Johnson's spokeswoman Jessica Towhey.
"Congressman Fincher does support this project," said his spokeswoman Sara Sendek. "He believes government does play a role in creating an environment that attracts private investment and job growth."
Taken individually, one could dismiss these requests as the politically, self-interested doings of lawmakers hoping to hold their seats. Together, however, they demonstrate an under-reported bit of political will to put a package of infrastructure spending together.
"I do think it is an area where there is popularity among both parties," said one top Democratic Senate aide. "It is definitely a candidate for something we'd consider [after the debt ceiling debate]."
Requests for reaction from Republican congressional leadership were not immediately returned. That said, one of the biggest GOP-backing interest groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has been supportive of infrastructure spending. And President Obama, in his twitter town hall event on Wednesday, pitched the topic yet again.
"For us to move forward on a major infrastructure initiative where we are putting people to work right now including construction workers … to put them to work rebuilding America at a time when interest rates are very low, contractors are looking for work, and the need is there, that is something that could make a huge positive impact on the economy overall," Obama said. "And it is an example of making an investment now that ends up having huge payoffs down the road."
"We haven't gotten the cooperation I would like to see [from Republicans]," he added. "But I'm just going to keep on trying and eventually, I'm sure the Speaker will see the light."
The devil will end up in the details. And even though there appears to be a greater appetite to do something on the infrastructure front, it's unlikely that even with a generous Republican caucus lawmakers will pass a bill that meets the country's needs. There is, currently, a service transportation bill making its way through Congress that deals with basic repairs to roads and bridges.
In terms of finding the type of funding needed for comprehensive modernization, "I'm not holding my breath," said the Senate aide.
"They can't get anything through and the stuff we are hearing on infrastructure is small potatoes," concurred a top labor official. "It is not anything we need to deal with our $2 trillion infrastructure deficit."

Scott Walker Rejected $12 Million Of The Specific $150 Million In High-Speed Rail Funds He Now Wants

This takes gall, but gov walker has plenty of that! The hypocrisy of the repiglicans and tea-baggers just goes on and on, and they just expect people to accept it....
WASHINGTON -- Millions of dollars of federal funding for specific high-speed rail services that Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) is now requesting were included in the initial batch of grants he rejected for the state of Wisconsin, a federal official tells The Huffington Post.
On Tuesday (29MAR11), Walker appeared to abruptly reverse tone and course by asking the Department of Transportation for $150 million in grants to help pay for high-speed rail improvements. While campaigning for the post he now holds, Walker made a big show of calling for the rejection of more than $800 million in federal funds that had been awarded for Wisconsin, calling it wasteful, if not unneeded, spending.
Inconsistency, the governor’s office insisted, this surely was not. The $150 million in funds Walker was now requesting were for improvements to the Hiawatha line -- between Milwaukee and Chicago – which, the governor stressed, was more popular and profitable. The previous batch of money was for a line between Madison and Milwaukee, which, because it was new, would have had cost overruns and required additional state obligations.
A Department of Transportation source, however, says that while the majority of the $800-million-plus in funds set aside for Wisconsin was for the Madison-Milwaukee rail, a small but not insignificant chunk was for improvements to the Hiawatha line.
“They received $12 million to upgrade and lay new track on the Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago,” the DOT official said.
A call to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation was not immediately returned.
Walker, it should be noted, was not responsible for Wisconsin’s initial application for high-speed rail funds. That would be his predecessor: Democrat Jim Doyle. But he also did not have to reject the full $800-million-plus package upon coming to office. The $12 million set aside for the Hiawatha line could, theoretically, have been kept and used for the purposes that Walker now wants.

That it wasn’t kept earned Walker early plaudits among fellow, self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives. But it also put Wisconsin in its current predicament, in which it is one of potentially dozens of states petitioning the Department of Transportation for a chunk of the $2.4 billion that the state of Florida gave up when its governor, Rick Scott, rejected high-speed rail.
According to the DOT official, all applications for that money, including Wisconsin’s, are due this coming Monday (4APR11).

United Streetcar Putting Americans to Work, Putting America in Position to Win The Future 12APR11

THIS is way cool, I love streetcars!
When you watch our latest video, "Transporting America: United Streetcar," you'll see the next generation of transportation. You'll see transit investments from the Department of Transportation helping people get where they need to go without breaking the bank. And you'll see a company out-innovating and out-building its foreign competition while creating jobs for American workers.

The streetcars rolling through Portland, Oregon, are helping commuters beat the rising cost of refueling their cars and vans and trucks. And, as rising gas prices take a bigger bite out of family budgets, other communities are looking to ease that bite through similar transportation options.
As commuter Jim Winkle says in the video, "It's made a huge difference."
That's why the Department of Transportation has supported streetcar projects in communities like Portland across America. From Charlotte, North Carolina, and Washington, DC, to Tucson, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas, grants from the Federal Transit Administration are helping jump-start the American streetcar renaissance.
United Streetcar president Chandra Brown agrees: "The Department of Transportation has been a true partner as the streetcar industry has developed. Without their assistance, we could not have made the private investment to make this new industry successful."
That's good news for commuters and their families. It's also good news for American workers because, at United Streetcar, they're manufacturing the first American streetcars in more than 50 years.
And we mean "American." The cars rolling out of United Streetcar have the highest percentage of American parts and labor of any streetcar in the last 50 years. That means United Streetcar's innovation is creating an economic ripple effect, providing business for an all-American supply chain of more than 200 different vendors in 20-plus states across the U.S.
I love the idea of DOT grants helping create American jobs, and I love the idea of helping American families with options to ease the pinch they feel at the pump. But there's also the pride I hear in workers--like welder Steve Goodman and construction foreman Casey Peacock--who know that for the first time in more than 50 years America can build its own streetcars.
And not only build our own streetcars--this company is bold enough to take on its foreign competitors by planning to export the cars they make.
President Obama has challenged Americans to dream big and build big. United Streetcar has risen to that challenge, and they’re doing it all with American parts, labor, and ingenuity. That means less congestion on our roads, more jobs for American workers, and a future we are prepared to win.
Ray LaHood is the Secretary of Transportation.

FACES OF DISTRACTED DRIVING

My Aunt Lynn was killed in a car accident on 14MAR10 because a person was talking on his cell phone while driving and lost control of his car and crashed into hers. This video is part of a series from the U.S. Dept of Transportation on the deadly problem of distracted driving.....please share with family and friends and coworkers....
 
On November 10, 2009, 17-year-old Alex Brown was killed when she crashed her truck on a rural road while she was on her way to school. She was texting at the time of the crash.

To honor Alex's memory, her family -- Jeanne, Johnny Mac, and 12-year-old Katrina -- formed an anti-distracted driving advocacy group, the Remember Alex Brown Foundation.

For more information, please visit www.distraction.gov. To share your story, upload a video to YouTube and email the link to faces@distraction.gov.