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Archive for the ‘Republican’ Category

The President’s Unserious Proposal

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Although some likened President Obama’s expansive vision to President Eisenhower’s historic call for a 42,000-mile Interstate Highway network, there is a vast difference between the two initiatives. The Interstate Highway proposal was backed by a reliable and steady revenue stream in the form of a federal gas tax. The high speed rail goal lacks a financial plan. It is not supported by a dedicated source of revenue that could maintain the program on a self-sustaining basis over a period of years.

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The Train to Nowhere: Three More Critical Perspectives

Monday, December 13th, 2010

Lest you think Washington has begun a new era of fiscal self-restraint, consider this week’s act of political retribution by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Newly elected GOP Governors in Ohio and Wisconsin wanted to kill high-speed rail projects in their states and instead use the money to fix their battered roads. Sorry, guys. Mr. LaHood reclaimed the $1.2 billion and handed it to 13 other states that still want to build these high-speed trains to nowhere.

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The Unraveling of the High-Speed Rail Program: A News Analysis

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

The future Republican House leadership is determined to retrieve whatever remains of the unspent and uncommitted stimulus (ARRA) funds. So has stated Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the prospective House Appropriations Committee chairman, as he introduced a bill (H.R. 6403, the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Rescission Act”) to rescind any unobligated ARRA funds and return them to the U.S. Treasury. Even already obligated ARRA funds may be at risk. Congressional GOP aides are reported to be closely reviewing agency records to identify particular stimulus-funded projects that could still be “reasonably” halted because work on them is only beginning.

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A Fresh Look at the Prospects for Transportation in the New Congress

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Last month we conducted an informal survey among colleagues in the transportation community about the outlook for the federal surface transportation program in the year(s) ahead…One comment from a veteran transportation insider summed up concisely the collective mindset: “There will be nothing ‘transformational’ about the future program,” he opined.

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A rail reality check that President Obama should heed

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Innovation NewsBriefs Vol. 21, No. 28 PRESIDENT OBAMA wants Americans to zip around in high-speed trains, just as many  Japanese, French, and Chinese already do. For him, the goal seems almost as much about  national pride as job creation or energy savings. “There’s no reason that Europe or China should have the fastest trains,” he has said. […]

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What’s NOT to get?

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Infra repairs = jobs.
Long-term investment will result in generations of improved roads, safer bridges, more efficient transportation systems and so much more.

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Update: The Federal High-Speed Rail Program: A Post-Election Reality Check

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s decision to cancel the proposed commuter trans-Hudson rail tunnel (ARC) offers another example of a resolve by the new wave of fiscally conservative governors to rein in spending on public works that, in their judgment, present an unacceptable level of risk and cost. While Christie’s decision was widely condemned as shortsighted by members of the infrastructure lobby, it was supported as fiscally prudent by a majority of New Jersey voters. (By a margin of 51 to 39 percent according to a Rutgers University poll).

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Streetsblog: Just How Lame Will This Lame Duck Be?

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

STREETSBLOG CAPITOL HILL
The GOP has named the 22 members of its transition team and it’s ready to get to work. Don’t expect the work for these lawmakers to include any actual law-making, though. Not till January, anyway.

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Republicans and Infrastructure: Still Together, Despite Disagreements

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

REGIONAL PLAN ASSOCIATION/ AMERICA 2050
Infrastructure and transportation is traditionally a bipartisan issue – characterized by equal opportunity “pork.” Under intensely partisan congresses, transportation bills passed in 2005 during the George W. Bush Administration, in 1998 during the Clinton Administration, and in 1991 during the George H.W. Bush Administration. The Surface Transportation Assistance Act even passed in 1982 during Ronald Reagan’s administration and with the president’s support, despite the Gipper’s heavily anti-federal-government stances.

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Investments for a Competitive and Healthy Minnesota: A Playbook for Minnesota’s New Governor

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Recommendations 1

About 1000 Friends of Minnesota
Minnesota needs a transportation system that is safer, enhances and preserves communities, and saves families and businesses money through greater reliance on public transit, bicycling, and walking, and better maintenance of the infrastructure we already have. Transportation is about much more than getting from A to B. It is not an end, but it should be a means for a community to achieve broader goals of economic development, neighborhood revitalization, and environmental sustainability.

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