Obama to Press for Infrastructure

[babylonsister]

Obama to Press for Infrastructure
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: October 11, 2010


WASHINGTON – President Obama will join mayors, governors and current and former transportation secretaries on Monday to argue for a major initiative to repair and modernize the nation’s roads, rails and air systems, just weeks before an election that is all but certain to expand the size of his Republican opposition in Congress.

A new report from economists at the Treasury and Mr. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers concludes that this is the “optimal time” to invest in public infrastructure because of high unemployment and lower prices in the construction industry, which has been hit harder than any other sector by the puncturing of the bubble in housing and commercial real estate.

Yet this is hardly an optimal time politically for such initiatives. Congress showed little appetite in recent months for additional stimulus spending at a time of high deficits. While Friday’s monthly jobs report confirmed a slowdown in already anemic private-sector hiring, and stoked calls from cities, states, business groups, unions and many economists for more federal help, Congress is out until after the elections. And then, a lame-duck Congress is unlikely to tackle any but essential business – especially if Republicans make big gains or even attain a majority in either the Senate or House when they reconvene in January.

Mr. Obama and two Cabinet members – Ray LaHood, his transportation secretary and a former Republican congressman, and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner -- will meet at the White House with a group that includes former transportation secretaries Norman Y. Mineta, a Democrat who served in the George W. Bush administration, and Samuel K. Skinner, a Republican who was in George H. W. Bush’s cabinet.

Mr. Mineta and Mr. Skinner head a separate group that released its own report last week making recommendations similar to those the president has outlined. But the group concluded that the combined federal, state and local cost of simply repairing existing systems would be between $134 billion and $194 billion, and it called for seeking ways other than fuel taxes to pay for future transportation projects -- including technology under development to assess motorists a fee for each mile driven.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/us/politics/12obama.html

[babylonsister]

1. JOBS! Obama's WPA?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

Works Progress Administration
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing, and housing. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western populations. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion.<1> By 1943, the total amount spent was over 11 billion.<2>

Created by order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the WPA was funded by Congress with passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935. The legislation had passed in the House of Representatives by a margin of 329 to 78, but was delayed by the Senate.<1>

The WPA continued and extended relief programs similar to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which was established by Congress in 1932 during the administration of Roosevelt's predecessor Herbert Hoover. Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided almost eight million jobs.<3>

Until ended by Congress and war employment during 1943, the WPA was the largest employer in the country. Most people who needed a job were eligible for at least some of its jobs.<4> Hourly wages were the prevailing wages in each area; the rules said workers could not work more than 30 hours a week, but many projects included months in the field, with workers eating and sleeping on worksites. Before 1940, there was some training involved to teach new skills and the project's original legislation had a strong emphasis on training.