There is a transportation-funding bill before the US Congress. US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has called it "the worst transportation bill in 35 years." (LaHood, it should be pointed out, served in the previous administration of President George W. Bush and thus was not originally an Obama appointee, and is in fact a Republican.)
A Republican spokesman defends the bill as providing for improved roads and bridges, and also implies that it will provide jobs and lower the cost of gasoline.
US roads and bridges are deteriorating and need improvements, but the bill will cut funding for urban mass transit in cities like New York and Chicago.
Thus the bill pits the big cities against the suburbs and rural areas—the mass transit riders and the car owners. This should not be surprising and might even be a deliberate intent of the bill, because the cities have tended to be liberal and Democratic, while rural and suburban areas are more often Republican. Thus the Republicans, who currently control Congress, are aiding those they consider their supporters and penalizing those they feel would most likely oppose them in any election.
The US is becoming proverbially polarized, into Red and Blue states. Now one more divisive and polarizing issue has been found.
Update, February 9, 2012.
I have been corrected in a comment (which see): Transportation Secretary LaHood was in fact appointed by Obama.
Copyright © 2012 by Richard Stein
Showing posts with label Ray LaHood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ray LaHood. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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