Sweeny Report » Obama’s stimulus plan gave Amtrak, aviation, clean water the shaft

Obama’s stimulus plan gave Amtrak, aviation, clean water the shaft

January 23rd, 2009 at 08:17pm Chuck Sweeny

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minnesota, is chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and he isn’t happy that President Obama’s stimulus plan — the one that was supposed to have all the roads, bridges and mass transit money. Well, it has hardly any of that money. Says Oberstar, as quoted on the TPM website, these kinds of projects provide jobs and needed infrastructure at the same time:

“That is why we set forth this $85-billion initiative from our committee. It’s been reduced in the final going. We expect that it’ll come out somewhere around $63 billion, but $30 billion for highways.

“The reason for the reduction in overall funding — we took money out of Amtrak and out of aviation; we took money out of the Corps of Engineers, reduced the water infrastructure program, the drinking water and the wastewater treatment facilities and sewer lines, reduced that from $14 billion to roughly $9 billion — was the tax cut initiative that had to be paid for in some way by keeping the entire package in the range of $850 billion.

“But I’ll say that our portion is the one that really creates the jobs. Our portion of it is the one that’s going to put people to work because unlike anything else, these jobs can’t be outsourced to Bangalore, India.”

In truth, Obama’s plan is a sop to all the traditional Democratic special intrests, and a capitulation to minority Republicans who wanted more tax cuts.

His bill won’t create jobs, just ill will. He needs to revise it. But he won’t.

Pardon me, the era of change is over. It’s back to same-old, same-old.

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5 Comments Add your own

1. railrider | January 24th, 2009 at 9:22 am

It is the hundreds of billions in social service programs in this so called stimulus that is taking the bulk of the funding away from the infrastructure. So we create almost no jobs, and put a huge tax burden on our children for nothing. These funds wont pay for one road project in the Rockford area, or do anything for getting passenger rail to Rockford. This is actually going to make our economy worse. Thanks Messiah Obama.
2. Monkey | January 25th, 2009 at 10:49 am

Good post Chuck. He’s been in office 5 days and you’re writing him off already. Incredible. Actually, maybe I should say it’s not surprising that a columnist would be so quick to pull the trigger.

Give him a chance, let him pull together something with input from both Dems and Repubs and go from there.

Further, regardless of what the President or Congress ultimately comes up with, it’s the American people, us, that is going to get the country out of this mess. We need to spend less, save more, become more educated and work harder. Easy to blame Obama or Congress but those are the facts.

Why don’t you write more about how WE got ourselves into this mess and how only WE can get ourselves out of it.
3. railrider | January 25th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Chuck,
A somewhat related question. Why does Pat Cunnigham’s blog dominate the RRStar website. He always has his blogs as the leads on the website, three to one. He is over there touting this stimulus, and is constantly berating our pro-ife community, bitterly attacking anything and all conservative. How about more of your blogs and the manufacturing blog as the lead. These are things of substance folks want to read. And by the way, this is a republican County, with probably over 60 percent conservative readership. Conservatives are the market for the RRStar. Just looking for some better balance in the RRStar Blogosphere.
4. Paul | January 29th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

Godd article Chuck. Politics aside, your post presents common sense points of view that your readers appreciate and will have a tough time arguing about them.
5. snuss | January 31st, 2009 at 2:24 pm

Chuck sez: “In truth, Obama’s plan is a sop to all the traditional Democratic special interests, and a capitulation to minority Republicans who wanted more tax cuts.

His bill won’t create jobs, just ill will. He needs to revise it. But he won’t.

Pardon me, the era of change is over. It’s back to same-old, same-old. ”

Now, If Pat could someday learn to view reality as clearly as you. But, Hell hasn’t frozen over yet.