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Dem platform touts auto bailout, mileage standards, and calls for 'long-term' transportation funding
The platform expected to be approved by Democrats on Tuesday lauds President Obama for the auto industry bailout and for implementing a new gas mileage standard.
The platform also calls for a longer transportation funding plan than the two-year, $105 billion highway bill that was recently approved by Congress.
The more than 25,000-word platform is expected to be ratified when the Democratic Party convenes the first day of its convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday.
The Republican Party's platform, which was approved last week, took whacks at Amtrak and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but the Democratic platform focuses on the $80 billion that was loaned to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009, arguing the assistance saved the U.S. auto industry.
"President Obama and the Democrats boldly rescued America’s auto industry, saving more than one million jobs, preventing the collapse of the industry’s supply chain, and shoring up countless communities, while revitalizing the backbone of America’s manufacturing sector," the Democratic platform says.
Democrats have seized on that op-ed, claiming that Romney would have let the auto industry go bankrupt.
"Mitt Romney thought the government’s action would destroy the auto industry; he and Republican leaders opposed the support President Obama extended to rescue an iconic industry," says the Dem platform.
Romney has argued he was suggesting that the auto companies be placed into a "managed bankruptcy."
The Democratic platform also touts new higher gas mileage rules for cars implemented earlier this month by the Obama administration. Under the new rules, cars will have to get at least 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025.
The rules will "save a typical car owner more than $8,000 in fuel costs over the life of their vehicle and reduce American consumers’ fuel costs by almost $2 trillion," the Democratic platform says.
"The Democratic Party supports a broad-based strategy to further strengthen an American renaissance in manufacturing, with tax relief for clean energy manufacturing, incentives to create advanced vehicles in the United States, more research, and a network of manufacturing innovation hubs," the platform continues.
The Democratic platform also calls for "long- term investments in our infrastructure."
"Roads, bridges, rail and public transit systems, airports, ports, and sewers are all critical to economic growth, as they enable businesses to grow," the platform says.
The platform gives no credit to Republicans in Congress for the highway bill, however.
"That’s why President Obama and Democrats in Congress have enacted infrastructure investments that will sustain our Highway Trust Fund and provide states, U.S. territories, and communities with two years of funding to build needed infrastructure," it says.
The platform says the investments in the current two-year highway bill "are critical for putting Americans back to work and strengthening America’s transportation system to grow our economy."
But it adds: "The president has proposed to go substantially further, including a significant up-front investment in our infrastructure followed by sustained increases in investment paid for with part of the savings from winding down our overseas wars, together with reforms that will better leverage government dollars and target significant projects."
