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Road builders: Highway bill not like other 'government spending'
With lawmakers in the Senate discussing their version of a new federal surface transportation, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association is out with a new ad arguing that government spending, normally derided, is worthwhile when it comes to highways.
"No other 'government spending' program does all of these," ARTBA's ad this week reads: "Creates and preserves American jobs. Results in tangible, long-lasting capital assets. Provides access to virtually very tax-generating American job. Facilitates a business transaction of some kind almost every time it's used. Enables every American export and import. Provides extraordinary productivity results. Makes emergency response and evacuation to natural and man-made disaster possible. Is critical to military mobilizations and national defense. Responds to a constitutional mandate for federal support.
The ad comes as the Senate began consideration this week of its two-year, $109 billion proposal for a new Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU, transportation bill.
The proposal is vastly different than what has emerged from the House. There, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) has proposed a six-year bill, which advocates generally favor, but at less spending per year, at $35 billion.
Both proposals are far less than the $556 billion President Obama proposed spending on transportation over six years earlier this year.
