House slashes transportation from transportation bill, gloms Arctic drilling on instead

[wtmusic]

Transportation, energy, whatevah.

"House Republican leaders last week took the wraps off a federal transportation bill that should be called the “Drive and Drill Act.” The measure has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, but it should be preserved in the Smithsonian as an example of what can happen when partisan politics run amok in an election year — and when oil industry lobbyists get everything they ask for except, perhaps, a derrick on the White House lawn.

The bill would spend $260 billion — roughly $51 billion a year — on highways, bridges and other transit programs over the next five years. That’s a mountain of money, but it doesn’t come close to meeting the needs on the ground. In 2011, a group led by former U.S. transportation secretaries concluded that federal government should be spending $262 billion a year to repair and improve the nation’s infrastructure.

Yes, these are lean times for the nation and for the federal government, and transportation must compete with other domestic priorities. But the nation’s roads, bridges and transit systems are in desperate need of repair and replacement after decades of disinvestment by Congress."

http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/27576307-47/transportation-bill-federal-funding-transit.html.csp

[Owlet]

1. Hey..it's the House of Koch

What do you expect other than "breathtaking cynicism." I like that phrase: gonna sock it away for future use.

Quote is from the same link in the OP.

"The GOP strategy is breathtakingly cynical and transparently manipulative. By linking highway construction — which is now primarily funded by gas-tax funding and user fees to oil and gas drilling revenues — lawmakers are trying to make transportation dependent on the fossil fuels industry. Nothing could make Big Oil happier — or richer. "