Obama rolls out new infrastructure, jobs plan

[ProSense]

Obama rolls out new infrastructure, jobs plan

by Joan McCarter

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama announced a new plan to repair the nation's failing infrastructure and create construction jobs. On Wednesday, the White House unveiled the plan.

The first element is a "fix-it-first" policy, an investment of $50 billion to address the transportation infrastructure with $40 billion of that targeted to the most urgent projects, the "highways, bridges, transit systems, and airports most in need of repair." The second part of the plan is a "Rebuild America Partnership," with all levels of government partnering with business and private capital on infrastructure projects. The third part is a commitment from the federal government to modernize and streamline the agency permitting and regulatory processes for projects.

The outlines of the plan have been well received so far.

After hearing a general description of the proposal, Robert Puentes, director of theMetropolitan Infrastructure Initiative, said that while some of the announcement had been on the president’s agenda for some time, “the important shift seems to be the administration is not waiting for the legislature,” but is “maximizing the things they can do themselves.”

Mr. Puentes expressed enthusiasm for the infusion of more private capital into infrastructure investment. “This is not going to solve all our infrastructure problems — we still have a long way to go,” he said, adding that private money cannot meet all of the nation’s needs. However, he said, “this will go a long way.”

Importantly, these are initiatives that minimize the need for congressional approval, where there would likely be a less enthusiastic response, at least from one side. Past efforts at infrastructure jobs bills have regularly been killed by Republicans, whose commitment to real job creation is hollow, at best.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/20/1188527/-Obama-rolls-out-new-infrastructure-jobs-nbsp-plan

Fact Sheet: The President’s Plan to Make America a Magnet for Jobs by Investing in Infrastructure
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/20/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-make-america-magnet-jobs-investing-infrastru

[B2G]

1. Wasn't this to be addressed by the stimulus?

Seriously, stop spending money.

[dmallind]

2. Why on earth should gov't stop spending money on stimulus projects?

What would that do to employment and GDP?

[B2G]

3. Because they haven't worked?

[dmallind]

10. really?

Looks like it worked really well. Do we need more or less of that shift?

[Berlum]

35. But they have worked. big time

You can make up stuff in your mind and post it on DU, but it is still RW imaginary, hate-driven BS. The stimulus saved America from the economic cesspool created by George AWOL Bush and the Republican Screwjob Cabal. That's the reality backed by actual facts.

[rtracey]

38. well

Well next time you drive your kids over a bridge in this country, think about when the last time there was money spent on that bridge. WE need to spend to get our economy moving..... think of this.... public sector debt – or government debt – which is over $16 trillion. Private sector debt is $38 trillion, more than double government debt. so govt spending is not the issue, its the middle class spending to get the economy moving and many are getting killed trying. The govt needs to help the private debt holders......

[The Wielding Truth]

39. The money has to be out there in circulation to improve the economy. Loans to small business and

government infrastructural jobs will do it. Why do you think wars improve economies? This time we can rebuild our own country. We should sell "Rebuild America" bonds.

[OldDem2012]

60. Right. Let's stop spending money and become Greece...will that make you happy? nt.

[Johonny]

5. because America doesn't deserve nice things

Money spent to improve the commons is used by common people who being common do not deserve it! We should only spend money to conquer oil land and build things rich people can enjoy.

[patrice]

51. K&R

[badtoworse]

7. How about because the government doesn't have the money?

That's the reason for the Public / Private Partnerships. Private investment in infrastructure will fund a lot of the work. The question is how will substantial private ownership of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports be accepted.

[dmallind]

12. Government prints money. Spending it drives GDP growth

The only concerns over stimulus spending are 1) making borrowing more expensive - no risk here as bond interest rates aare at hidtoric lows with all the moneymen in the world looking for safe havens here at trivial yields 2)driving inflation as more cash in the system drives greater spending - again no risk as we have plenty of slack capacity and high unemployment ready to run it.

[n2doc]

18. Screw toll roads

Screw the selloff of PUBLIC assets to the 1%. That is not what America has been founded on, and not what we are. Private investment seeks a profit. Public investment seeks to enable others to make profits, and to better the county.

[ProSense]

21. Defense budget: $614 billion, including $89 billion for the Afghanistan war

Surely, the Government can find $50 billion to fix the friggin infrastructure in this country, putting Americans back to work and strengthening our economy.

[jeff47]

37. The government can borrow at about 1%

It's really, really, really, really easy to turn a profit when you can get money for almost free.

Fix some roads, repair a lot of infrastructure, and save money by not having to apply band-aids which then explode and level a restaurant.

[xtraxritical]

44. No one ever mentions the failing water and sewer systems in most cities.

Very critical and most nearing a hundred years old.

[WCGreen]

56. The Cleveland area is in the middle of a multi-billion dollar update of the storm/sewer

system that will segregate all sewage from rain run off. Most of the largest systems use the same pipe which causes much of the biological sewage in the nations waterways.

There are a lot of metropolitan areas, run by democrats, mind you, that are proceeding with public funding from property tax levies.

[badtoworse]

61. It's about time. This should have been addressed 40 years ago.

[OldDem2012]

59. How about shifting the money from useless and bloated defense projects to....

....projects that actually help people here at home?

Yes, there's plenty of money...it's just not being allocated properly.

[NMDemDist2]

8. seriously?

it was addressed marginally with the stimulus and that's the only thing that has the economy moving at all at this point.

$50B is a drop in the bucket and for every $ spent in infrastructure returns $1.44. That's a pretty hefty ROI

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/yarossi-look-at-roi-on-infrastructure-1.3514636

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/economic-policy/Documents/20120323InfrastructureReport.pdf

[kelliekat44]

11. Seriously, stop spending money on the wrong things! nt

[Enrique]

13. yes, the Shock Doctrine is our answer

total austerity ftw!

[ProSense]

20. Holy cow, what a misguided comment. n/t

[OldDem2012]

58. Oh, my....here we go. nt.

[meow2u3]

4. GOP Congresscritters: it's DOA before we even read it

Obama proposes, GOP opposes.

[leftstreet]

6. 'partnering with business and private capital' - How GOP n/t

[badtoworse]

9. It's called P3 and it's gaining traction

[woo me with science]

22. Yes, and it's exploitative privatization wearing a mask:

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2012/1112bondgraham.html



P3 is at least three things:

It is a rebranding of privatization. The phrase purposefully evokes a win-win scenario involving equal “partners” working toward a common goal. Government leaders have been sold this new kind of privatization as a solution to declining tax revenues and borrowing capacity, while private companies claim to be offering their expertise and capital in a spirit of public service.

It is the result of a long ideological campaign against public-sector unions and “big government,” which conservative think tanks, pundits, and politicians blame for growing deficits and crumbling infrastructure. This worldview, meanwhile, hails private companies and the private profit motive as the bearers of efficiency and fiscal discipline.

Finally, P3 is obviously a money-making opportunity. It is propelled by an infrastructure-industrial complex composed of global construction corporations, investment banks, private-equity firms, and elite law firms organized as vertically integrated consortiums. Allied through their own trade associations, they are actively pressing for new laws to expand the types of public infrastructure from which they can extract profits, and in recent years they have been quietly succeeding.

....
The Infrastructure Industrial Complex

Given the magnitude of profits to be made, powerful companies have invested considerable time and resources to push P3-authorization laws through more than 30 state legislatures. The handful of global construction companies, investment banks, and private equity firms that dominate the P3 market today spend millions each year lobbying lawmakers in key U.S. states. Besides shopping around bills to authorize highway privatization, they are now expanding into the privatization of public-building projects (like court buildings), parking garages and metering systems, and other so-called “social infrastructure.”

[dreamnightwind]

32. Thank you for this post - nt

[woo me with science]

40. NP. The Third Way has been pushing this scam for years.

http://www.thirdway.org/publications/365

That is why you see the inevitable spin that *Democrats* support this. Sure they do...the very same Democrats who are in bed with banks and corporations on everything from this to privatized preschools to establishing a profit motive for imprisoning more and more Americans in private prisons.

Rahm Emanuel has been pushing an "infrastructure bank" and public-private "partnerships" in Chicago for years: http://mayoraltutorial.com/articles/the_infrastructure_bank_public_private_larceny ...That is, when he is not busy helping corporations suck profits out of the public schools.

What it is, is a new way to finance public works projects so that bankers and private corporations get their dirty, grasping hands on the profits.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/stuart-zechman-the-beatings-will-continue-until-all-not-yet-right-thinking-lefties-support-the-infrastructure-bank-scam.html

The brazen misrepresentation of the propaganda here is breathtaking. Last week we saw commercials for capture and privatization of preschool education shamelessly touted to Democrats as long-awaited "universal preschool." Now inserting profiteering banks and corporations into infrastructure development is being sold as a progressive jobs program.

When will we have had enough of Orwell? When do we stand up together and demand an end to the corporate bull?

[amandabeech]

42. I've had enough of this stuff.

Furthermore, what's to keep Chinese companies from low-bidding these things and bringing in their cheap labor, like what is happening in San Francisco with one of the bridges, I think the Oakland Bay Bridge.

No more third way!

[dreamnightwind]

47. Thanks, I am aware but not up on all of the details

Preach it. And to answer your question, how about now?

[ProSense]

34. What you posted

"Yes, and it's exploitative privatization wearing a mask:"

...has nothing to do with the proposal in the OP. This is an entity that progressives have been fighting to establish for years.

The People’s Budget

<...>

In addition to cuts in wasteful spending and tax changes to raise additional revenue and create a more progressive tax system, the People’s Budget proposes $1.7 trillion worth of new spending on public investments over the coming decade. Specifically, it budgets $212.9 billion for a surface transportation reauthorization bill, including $30 billion as start-up costs for a national infrastructure bank that would leverage private financing to help rebuild America’s public capital stock. General public investments of $1.45 trillion, including high-speed rail and port improvement projects, are front-loaded to put Americans back to work quickly; $1.2 trillion of the total would be spent over the next five years.


http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/0911ein.html

The infrastructure bank is government-owned: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2403807

[badtoworse]

45. Drive around the New York City area and check out the infrastructure

It's been getting worse for decades. There are bridges with spalling concrete and rusty steel everywhere. A lot of the roads have potholes the size of tank traps. Many of the water mains are a hundred years old and fail regularly. We're supposed to accept this because the infrastructure is publically owned?

Face it - maintaining first class infrastructure is not on any politician's priority list and it doesn't matter which party they belong to. I've lost faith that government would get the job done even if funds were available (which they aren't).

If P3 would get us first class roads, bridges, airports, water and waste water facilities, etc., then I have no problem with private investors making a reasonable return on their money.

[woo me with science]

14. Gotta have those corporate middlemen in there.

We already know who will profit from this, and it won't be the rock bottom-wage, low to no-benefit slaves digging the ditches.

We are bought and sold, and now expected to cheer for more corporate schemes that guarantee exploitation, whether it is privatized, corporatized preschools or the privatized, corporate New Deal.

I think they truly believe that if you just use a few populist buzz words...."universal preschool," or "infrastructure jobs program"...you will fool the sheep, and they won't notice that it's just another profit-sucking corporate scheme.

Profit-sucking corporate schemes are ALL we get anymore. Both parties are in the pockets of the one percent.

And we are bought and sold.

[ProSense]

16. You have no idea what you're talking about. n/t

[leftstreet]

17. +1 the GOP died because the Dems stole all their ideas

[ProSense]

19. Dems killed the GOP?

Good to know. I hope they stay dead.

Still, the best way to ensure that is to not emulate them and their ability to ignore/reject facts, like those here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2403807

[forestpath]

23. +1 Coporate middlemen - exactly. Can't help the unemployed without making the rich richer now!

[patrice]

52. Agreed. So let's see the alternative; wheel it out here right now, so we can assess the COSTS

to the people to make it happen.

Where's the plan? What/Why/Who/Timeline/How/and How Much$$$?

And: What is stopping workers from getting those middle-wo/men out of there themselves, right now?

[patrice]

53. & btw, are you employed & do you have health care & will your alternative cost you either one or

both of those? And will it affect Social Security and/or whatever pension you may still have?

If there are no costs to the alternative, whatever it is, that is a lie. That's not saying people can't accept those costs, but no one should pretend there aren't any, because that would indeed be "Meet the 'new' boss, SAME as the old boss."

[patrice]

54. Looks like we're going to have to proceed by the process of elimination; is this your alternative?

My honest guess is that it is something like this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017100258

[ProSense]

15. If the

"'partnering with business and private capital' - How GOP"

...infrastructure bank was a "GOP" idea, they wouldn't have spent the last few years opposing it.

Create a National Infrastructure Bank: The President continues to call for the creation of a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank. The Bank will have the ability to leverage private and public capital to support infrastructure projects of national and regional significance. In addition, the Bank will be able to invest through loans and loan guarantees in a broad range of infrastructure projects, including transportation, energy, and water, and will operate as an independent, wholly owned government entity outside of political influence.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/20/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-make-america-magnet-jobs-investing-infrastru

It will be a government-owned entity subject to Congressional oversight. In terms of economic development, think of it like the TVA (http://www.tva.com/abouttva/index.htm) on a larger scale.

TVA helps strengthen the Tennessee Valley region’s economy by building business and community partnerships that bring jobs to the region and keep them here. TVA’s reliable, competitively priced power makes the region an attractive place to start or expand a business.

•Helped attract or retain more than 40,500 jobs
•Leveraged more than $4.3 billion in capital investment

http://www.tva.com/abouttva/factbook.htm
http://www.tva.com/abouttva/index.htm

[dreamnightwind]

25. Well, they would oppose the public part of it

preferring only private solutions. That doesn't really negate the reaction you were responding to, which was also my reaction.

Personally I oppose the private part of it. I don't know a whole lot about this yet, just hearing about it now, but I don't imagine the private investors are doing this for the public good. If it means private ownership of public assets, it sucks. If it means toll roads and bridges with profits to private corporations, it sucks. We as a nation can and should pay for our infrastructure, and we don't need corporations siphoning profits from us when we use this infrastructure. It's enough to pay for maintenance, we don't need to also pay for profits. Not sure if that's what this plan would lead to, but that's the concern I and probably other Democrats would have about it.

[ProSense]

26. What

"Well, they would oppose the public part of it preferring only private solutions. That doesn't really negate the reaction you were responding to, which was also my reaction. "

...the hell are you talking about? It's a "wholly owned government entity."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2403807

[dreamnightwind]

29. By "it" you mean the proposed national infrastructure bank,

correct? My concerns could be unfounded, but they are about the ownership and management of the resulting infrastructure projects, not the bank.

[One_Life_To_Give]

24. Over what timeframe?

In 2013 would be a start. Over ten years, well not so much.

[dkf]

28. These things take forever to implement.

I would like to know how many bridges the first stimulus fixed and how soon it was started.

If I had some facts showing this is a fairly efficient project I would be more inclined to support it.

I tend to think this is an empty promise as a stimulus and job creator because of our slow process.

[ProSense]

46. Well if the country can

"These things take forever to implement...I tend to think this is an empty promise as a stimulus and job creator because of our slow process. "

...invest billions in 12 years of war, we should find the funding, patience, time and will to fix the infrastructure.

It doesn't need to take forever, and we have to start somewhere.

[dkf]

50. But that's why I wouldn't call it a stimulus.

We need more and steadier funding than we can get in a stimulus package.

[msongs]

27. privatized prisons are a booming growth industry with Obama's assistance ...

"In October 2011 President Obama tapped Broderick Johnson as a senior advisor for his re-election campaign. According to OpenSecrets, a clearinghouse for lobbying data, Johnson lobbied extensively on behalf of the GEO Group since the mid-1990s. And Johnson’s so-called “advisorship” comes on the heels of President Obama’s 2010 nomination of Stacia Hylton as the new Director of the United States Marshals Service (USMS). Just months before her nomination Hylton started a private prison consulting firm— Hylton Kirk and Associates—while working at the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the Federal Detention Trustee. After retiring as a trustee, Hylton agreed to a consulting contract with The GEO Group worth $112,500."

source = http://www.nationofchange.org/president-obama-s-incarcernation-1335274655

[ProSense]

30. Oh, good grief.

What utter bullshit. Why not just go work for Republicans? I'm sure they're going to kill this jobs bill too.

They killed climate change legislation and five jobs bills.

No one gives a shit about the facts any more. The President proposed an infrastructure bank, a government-owned entity (http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2403807), and people are jumping in with silly "corporate middlemen" and "privatized" memes.

It's fucking absurd.

People have been fighting for this for years.

[leftstreet]

33. It's not 'fucking absurd'

It's right there if you read your own link

The second part of the plan is a "Rebuild America Partnership," with all levels of government partnering with business and private capital on infrastructure projects. The third part is a commitment from the federal government to modernize and streamline the agency permitting and regulatory processes for projects.

What part of this don't you understand?

Gut regulations, put public money in the hands of private profiteers

[ProSense]

36. Yes, it is

fucking absurd: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2404210

"What part of this don't you understand?"

Cheap fucking talking points is killing this country.

[dreamnightwind]

49. OK, I followed that link and a little beyond

Just trying to understand this. If you don't think we need to be wary of private encroachment, you don't live in the country I live in (USA). So you should be glad there are people here who are vigilant against that, as frustrating as such wariness may be to you sometimes. Believe me, the frustration goes both ways.

What we have to figure out is whether or not that is the case here (private encroachment). I followed the link in the post I am responding to here, thank you for that, it actually appears to describe the initiative in question.

I drilled down to the background analysis done by the Economic Policy Institute. It didn't really explain the public-private partnership much beyond the info you posted earlier in this thread. Anyway here's what I found that looks relevant, most of which you already posted. From https://s3.amazonaws.com/epi.3cdn.net/55d8ba5873e5bd097e_avm6b8rb1.pdf:

"To help finance these long-term infrastructure improvements, the People’s Budget plan
calls for a National Infrastructure Bank (I-Bank) to leverage private capital and direct investment
toward projects of national importance. The People’s Budget adopts the six-year plan to establish
the I-Bank as presented in the president’s 2012 budget (part of the six-year surface transportation
reauthorization proposal).6 The I-Bank would provide loans and grants to support individual
projects and broader activities of significance to our Nation’s economic competitiveness. For
example, the I-Bank could support improvements in road and rail access to a West Coast port
that benefits farmers in the Midwest, or it could fund a national effort to guarantee private loans
made to help airlines purchase equipment in support of the Next Generation Air Transportation
System (NextGen)."

So I'm left with "leveraging private capital", and also an example project where the I-Bank uses public money to guarantee private loans. That doesn't sound like a stealth privatization of infrastructure. I need more understanding of this, and I'm sure it's not the whole story, but I do feel a little better having read that.

[woo me with science]

41. Thank you.

The commercials will continue, but people are learning to pay attention to the presence of the corporate profiteers in every single one of these scams.

Just like that lovely, progressive-sounding "Universal Preschool" proposal from last week that is actually an extension downward of corporate "Race to the Top."

Corporate money in our government is a cancer. Policy-driving vultures.

[woo me with science]

31. Disgusting beyond words. This is what happens

when we allow corporations to buy our government and our politicians and gain control over human lives. Creating profit motives for the imprisonment of human beings is evil.

Privatization, exploitation, and the sucking of profits from human lives and every basic human need....These assaults will continue from both parties, in every single area of our lives, until we stand up together and reject corporate control of our political parties, our elections, and our government.

This is our country. We are citizens, not farm animals to be used and exploited for profit. We have ceded our government to corporate interests that exist to increase their bottom line, period, no matter the cost to the rest of us. Human worth and dignity, human values, and human rights do not figure into their calculations. The only thing that matters to a corporation is the profit margin at the bottom of the ledger.

How long are we going to pretend that we can afford to circle the wagons around these outrages, as long as Democrats are the ones promoting them? How long are we going to pretend that only the *other* party has been purchased and is actively promoting this predatory corporate agenda? Again and again and again, like a bludgeon, taking down our country brick by brick. Always a new one, no matter which party is in power...

How long?

[amandabeech]

43. This will happen for as long as "Citizens United" rules campaign financing,

and maybe longer.

What we need is public financing of shorter election periods at all levels of government.

That will be the only way to win the war.

Other battles can be useful, but in the end we're just harassing the enemy, which seems to be powerful, monied interests that seek to entrench themselves as the ruling elite of both parties.

[midnight]

57. I have been watching this industry making headway here in Wisconsin... This trend is very conceding.

Our judicial races are swimming in lots of outside money...

but this is a new twist:
THE INFLUENCE OF THE PRIVATE PRISON INDUSTRY IN IMMIGRATION DETENTION

http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/privateprisons

[Scurrilous]

48. K & R

[westcoastleftleaner]

55. dont mean shit!!!

I'm a local 72 union cement mason, and our government is so bloated and fattend with red tape, us real middle income won't ever live to see this money spent lke it should.........meh!!!! Whatever! Just a bunch of posturing!