|
WITH
a vote of 359 to 65, the US House of Representatives
recently passed the US$305 billion Fixing
America's Surface Transportation (FAST)
Act, the long awaited measure to repair
America's deteriorating roads, bridges,
public transit and rail infrastructure.
About
the same time, the Senate voted 83 to 16
for the five-year highways bill that would
do all that, plus revive the charter of
the US Export-Import Bank that was deliberately
been allowed to lapse in June to cut government
waste.
While
the Conservative Republicans, which sought
eliminate the bank as wasteful welfare for
the rich as the likes of Boeing and General
Electric were the typical beneficiaries.
This the Main Street Republican thought
would appeal to left-liberals, completely
forgetting that such people have seldom
found a subsidy they could not bring themselves
to support. Moreover, being small town Main
Streeters and not Big Apple Wall Streeters
they also failed to realise that national
export credit agencies are as ubiquitous
as fire departments and while idle most
of the time, they tend to be needed in the
clinches.
To
make things clear to the Main Street Republicans,
whose hearts were in the right place, but
whose parochial intellects were disengages,
Boeing and General Electric warned that
the loss of the bank's support could cause
them to move manufacturing jobs out of the
United States, who places with export credit
agencies willing to help them. Ethiopian
Airlines also said its ability to buy Boeing
jets was at risk without Ex-Im financing.
Without
enthusiasm, President Barack Obama then
signed the bill hours before highways funding
was to run out. "This bill is not perfect,
but it is a commonsense compromise, and
an important first step," he said.
perhaps thinking that this was a bill that
was likely to employ more Republicans in
"fly-over country" between New
York and LA. than the usual Democrat voting
block "personing" the MUSH (Museums,
Universities, Schools and Hospitals) .
But
enthusiasm lay elsewhere. The FAST Act is
a House-Senate effort is regarded as one
of the most important measures this Congress
will pass, said House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee chairman Bill Shuster
(R-PA).
"This
legislation will help repair and improve
the critical transportation network that
we all rely on. This bill is an investment
in America and the infrastructure that underpins
our economy," he said.
"After
10 years of short-term band-aids and extensions,
Congress will finally pass a long-term,
bipartisan surface transportation bill that
will begin to deal with our aging network
of roads, bridges, and transit systems,"
he said.
Said
the committee's top Democrat Peter DeFazio
(D-OR): "This is a common-sense, bipartisan
bill we need to bring our aging system into
the 21st century."
Page 1 2
[Next]
|
