Economy

End Of An Era: Why Public Transportation Is On The Rise (CHARTS)

Brian Beutler | March 16, 2012, 6:02AM

The economy's on the rebound, and with it so is the U.S. auto manufacturing sector, three years after Detroit nearly went bankrupt. But a different indicator of U.S. economic growth suggests a significant realignment is under way in the American transportation system -- one that isn't necessarily good news for car makers.

The charts below tell a key part of the American story of the last century. Despite their much smaller numbers, Americans in the middle of the 1900s took more public transit trips on buses, trains and so on than we do today as a whole. Many more. In 1947 -- the peak year -- they racked up 23.4 billion trips in total. Last year it was a paltry-by-comparison 10.4 billion.

The key reason why won't surprise you.

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Keystone XL

Hoyer Sees Potential For Cooperation On Keystone

Brian Beutler | January 31, 2012, 2:07PM

Steny Hoyer speaks at press conference with House Ways and Means Committee Democrats. November 30, 2011.

If Republicans drop their political motivations for pursuing the Keystone XL pipeline, they'll find a sympathetic ear in House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer.

The second most powerful Democrat in the House suggested on Tuesday that both the will and the legislative vehicles exist to move forward on Keystone in a bipartisan fashion if Republicans attach it to forthcoming infrastructure legislation in away that allows the administration to fully assess the project's merits as required under existing law.

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Payroll Tax Cut

Collins, McCaskill Unveil Jobs Plan -- Including Millionaire Tax Increase

Brian Beutler | December 6, 2011, 2:45PM

Sen. Susan Collins (R - ME), left, and Claire McCaskill (D - MO), stand together during a presidential signing ceremony for the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act at the White House in Washington, D.C. on July 22, 2010.

As reported earlier, Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Susan Collins (R-ME) just dropped the details of their plan to extend the payroll tax cut, which includes other economic growth proposals. And both sponsors were explicit about the fact that their goal is to entice GOP senators to break their anti-tax streaks.

First the details on the legislation.

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Democrats

Senate Dems To Force Another Vote On Jobs Plan

Brian Beutler | October 21, 2011, 1:42PM

Senate Democrats will continue their push to pass pieces of President Obama's jobs bill by forcing another test vote, in just over a week, on legislation to fund key infrastructure projects, and to seed an infrastructure bank, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced Friday.

The legislation would provide $50 billion worth of direct investment to transportation and other infrastructure projects, and create a federal infrastructure bank, with authority to loan money to states and private companies to build out public-use infrastructure.

The kicker is that it will be paid for with a 0.7 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year. That's a slight tick higher than the minuscule surtax Democrats proposed to pay for legislation to hire teachers and emergency first responders that Republicans filibustered late Thursday night.

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Jobs

Cantor Nixes President Obama's Infrastructure Bank Idea

Brian Beutler | September 8, 2011, 2:16PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is striking a gentler tone ahead of President Obama's Thursday jobs speech, and highlighting the areas he says Republicans can work with the administration to grow the economy -- unemployment insurance, payroll taxes, and infrastructure. But the devil is in the details, and there are still significant differences between the parties' approaches.

"I'm wary of the suggestion of an infrastructure bank," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told reporters at a roundtable lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "I am one who agrees with the notion that an infrastructure bank is almost like creating a Fanny and Freddie for roads and bridges."

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Debt

McConnell: Obama Jobs Plan Will Be 'Same Failed Approach'

Brian Beutler | September 7, 2011, 6:05AM

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Congress returned to Washington on Tuesday, which gave Republicans their first national whack at President Obama since public anger over the debt limit fight boiled over, and details of his jobs plan started to leak, and he nixed a forthcoming pollution regulation at the behest of Republicans and conservative business interests.

Who better to wield the truncheon than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who perhaps unwittingly affirmed a recent, widely cited critique of the GOP, written by a 30 year Republican Capitol Hill vet.

"[E]very one of us, I'm sure, is aware of the fact that many Americans are not only frustrated with the state of our economy, but also with the state of their government," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "I don't think any one of us is under any illusion that the American people were particularly eager to see us come back."

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Debt Ceiling

O'Malley: Eric Cantor And 'Dinosaur Wing' Of GOP Already Hurting States In Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | July 20, 2011, 2:10PM

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD)

The ratings agency Moody's is threatening to reduce the rating of five states with AAA credit (along with the rating of the federal government) if Congress fails to raise the debt limit in early August. Now the governor of one of those states -- Maryland's Martin O'Malley -- is publicly singling out the Republicans in Congress who are preventing swift action on the debt limit.

"All of this brinksmanship and these threats of the dinosaur wing of the Republican party led by Eric Cantor to drive us needlessly into a default have impacted confidence I think throughout the country," O'Malley told me in a Tuesday interview. "It's impacted consumer confidence, it's impacted investor confidence, it's impacted the confidence of small businesses who are the backbone of this economy and who need to hire again. In that respect it's already had an effect. The closer we get to this deadline, and the more immediate ramifications that has for those of us that are going out into the bond market."

These concerns will become very real if Congress doesn't raise the debt limit in the next few days.

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Jim DeMint

Senator Tea Party In Bind Over Port vs. Pork

Susan Crabtree | April 14, 2011, 5:14PM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Update: Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) spokesman accuses Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) of being a johnny-come-lately to securing funds for the Port of Charleston. He says "era of earmarks is over" and earmarks are backlogged at Army Corps of Engineers, exacerbating the problem with the port funding. Instead of trying to directing the Army Corp to fund the study, he wants to create a commission to ensure projects are funded on their merits. More developments, including DeMint spokesman's full statement.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), or Senator Tea Party as he's sometimes known, has found himself between a bit of a rock and a hard place over spending for a job-dependent project in his district and his role as the leading anti-earmark crusader in the upper chamber.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a prominent House Democrat, on Thursday issued a scathing indictment of DeMint, his GOP South Carolina colleague, for effectively killing jobs in the state by refusing to back money for a study on deepening the Port of Charleston.

But others, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is threatening to "tie the Senate in knots" over the funds, have said DeMint supports federal funds for the port and is privately helping to secure them.

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Infrastructure

Lindsey Graham Offers Stirring Defense of Government Spending: "Will Allow Us to Create Jobs"

Benjy Sarlin | April 13, 2011, 12:31PM

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC)

Questioned Wednesday about his threat to "tie the Senate into knots" over $50,000 for a South Carolina port left out of the shutdown-averting spending deal, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) launched into an impassioned defense of the role of government in job creation.

"If you're a Republican and you want to create jobs, then you need to invest in infrastructure that will allow us to create jobs," he said at a press conference with Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee on Social Security in response to a question from TPM. "Congress, Republicans and Democrats, talk about creating jobs. How can you create jobs by shutting a port down that 260,000 people depend on?"

Graham said the $50,000 study now on the chopping block was crucial to advancing a $350 million joint federal and state project to ready the port for larger ships. Without it, Graham said, President Obama would have difficulty meeting his goal of doubling exports within five years.

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Infrastructure

Freshman GOPer Hopes That Transportation Project He Voted To Cut Gets Restored

Brian Beutler | February 24, 2011, 11:21AM

Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-IL)

Life was more fun for Republicans when they could vote "no" on job-creating bills like the stimulus, then go to ribbon-cutting ceremonies for stimulus projects in their districts.

Now that they're voting "yes" on bills that will slash, delay or eliminate those projects, life's pretty rough.

Check out, for instance, this interview with freshman Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-IL), who's tied in knots over his recent vote to kill a transportation project in his district. Specifically, he voted for the House spending legislation, which would eliminate a $230 million federal grant to build an Amtrak line from Chicago to Iowa City, if it goes into effect.

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Infrastructure

Axelrod: Obama To Hit The Road To Push 'Win The Future'

Brian Beutler | January 27, 2011, 8:00AM

If you liked President Obama's "Win the Future"-themed State of the Union address, prepare to hear a whole lot more of the same.

According to one of his top advisers, Obama will take the growth and investment goals outlined in Tuesday's address on the road.

"We have to go out -- and I understand that there is some skepticism on the other side -- but part of what the president did [Tuesday] night, and what he's doing [Wednesday] in Wisconsin and what he'll continue to do relentlessly is make the case for this growth agenda, for this strategy, to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the world," David Axelrod told reporters and liberal writers at a Roosevelt Room roundtable Wednesday afternoon. "Hopefully there'll be public pressure and support on Democrats and Republicans to support this strategy."

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John Thune

Thune Rejects Obama's Call For Infrastructure Investment

Brian Beutler | January 26, 2011, 11:00AM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

In a brief interview Wednesday, just above the Senate chamber, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) rejected President Obama's State of the Union call for broad infrastructure upgrades, citing his opposition to new spending projects and claiming that existing mechanisms for funding current transportation infrastructure projects are basically adequate.

"I understand the goal, but right now this is going to be -- anytime you talk about 'investment' it means new spending," Thune told me. "When you talk about new spending at a time when we've got this financial picture, I don't know how he's going to accomplish all the things that he wants to get done, and then still talk about a five-year freeze on discretionary spending. You can't do it all."

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State Of The Union

Republicans Have Already Signaled Their Response To The State Of The Union Address

Brian Beutler | January 25, 2011, 7:13PM

President Barack Obama

By all accounts, President Obama's State of the Union address will include a little something for everybody. A call for a partial temporary spending freeze to ameliorate conservatives. A call to renew investment in infrastructure and education for Democrats, and maybe even some Republicans.

But through selective leaks and hints to the press the White House has already introduced the themes they hope stick. Out of nowhere, legislators began debating the merits of "investment," some reversed course on infrastructure spending, and Republicans pre-emptively nixed Obama's expected call to cap domestic discretionary spending.

In that way, we've already experienced the bulk of the impact of the State of the Union. And the legislative terrain on Capitol Hill may be largely unchanged.

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Infrastructure

Cantor: Repeal That Job-Creating Infrastructure Project In My District (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | January 25, 2011, 11:20AM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

As I reported Monday, Republicans are torn between acknowledging the need for infrastructure modernization and appeasing the right flank of their party. This has typically been bipartisan territory, but suddenly top Republicans, dragged to the right by the activist wing of their party, must disavow most new spending. So they spin their wheels when asked how to improve transportation infrastructure without new spending. But they're also forced to reject projects they once cheered.

One of the main flanks of the Republican agenda is to reclaim the last unspent stimulus dollars -- many billions of which are pegged to high-speed rail projects.

"If there is one thing that I think all of us here on both sides of the political aisle from all parts of the region agree with, it's that we need to do all we can to promote jobs here in the Richmond area," said then House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, shortly after the stimulus bill passed in 2009.

He was talking about a high-speed rail stimulus project that he claimed would bring scores of thousands jobs to the region.

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Infrastructure

Republicans In A Fix On Infrastructure Spending

Brian Beutler | January 24, 2011, 4:30PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) with GOP leaders

One area the Republican party's anti-spending crusade puts them in a bind is infrastructure spending. Repairing roads and bridges, modernization, etc. have historically been bipartisan priorities -- but they've also always cost a lot of money.

Ask Republicans whether they want to include transportation infrastructure in their calls for broad spending cuts, and you don't get a very specific answer.

"We've got to learn how to prioritize and do more with less in all areas of government," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at his weekly press conference today. "It just is what it is. In the terms of transportation, we've got to figure out ways how to leverage dollars, how to come up with innovative ways to address the nation's ailing transportation infrastructure."

There's a reason for that. Ask instead how they propose to upgrade the country's transportation infrastructure without new spending, and it turns out there's no simple answer.

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Barack Obama

Pitched Battle Brewing Over President's Infrastructure Plan

Brian Beutler | September 8, 2010, 3:51PM

President Barack Obama

Less than 48 hours after President Obama announced a plan to create a $50 billion national infrastructure investment bank, Republicans -- and at least one Senate Democrat -- have set it up for long odds. Republicans denounced it as another "stimulus" bill, and resumed their calls for broad tax and spending cuts. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), in a fight for his political life, said he'd only support the proposal if it constitutes no new spending.

"I will not support additional spending in a second stimulus package. Any new transportation initiatives can be funded through the Recovery Act, which still contains unused funds," Bennet said in a statement. "Public-private partnerships that improve our infrastructure are a good idea, but must be paid for, should not add a dime to the deficit, and should be covered by unused Recovery Act dollars. We must make hard choices to significantly reduce the deficit."

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John Boehner

Republicans Buck Obama On GOP-Friendly Tax Cuts, Infrastructure Bank

Brian Beutler | September 8, 2010, 10:05AM

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)

President Obama is in the process of rolling out a job creation package comprised overwhelmingly of the sorts of tax cuts Republicans normally love, paired with a modest plan to create a government-run infrastructure investment bank to help fund transportation projects across the country. But judging from the GOP response, you'd think the specifics of the proposal were reversed: big on spending, small on tax cuts. In other words, so comfortable have Republicans become with opposing Democratic proposals, that they're gearing up for a fight against the policies their most powerful supporters love.

"As the American people, facing near double-digit unemployment, mark Labor Day by asking, where are the jobs, the White House has chosen to double-down on more of the same failed 'stimulus' spending," House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a Monday statement. He was speaking in that instance about the infrastructure bank, but his statement on Tuesday about the tax cuts wasn't much more encouraging.

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John Boehner

Former McCain Adviser Says Boehner Wrong On Stimulus, Geithner, And Summers

Brian Beutler | August 25, 2010, 11:42AM

Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi

Former McCain economic adviser, and longtime stimulus defender, Mark Zandi took issue today with House Minority Leader John Boehner's criticisms of President Obama's economic policies, and with multiple GOP calls for Obama's top economic advisers to resign.

"I think we'd be in a measurably worse place if not for the stimulus," Zandi said at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning. "If we had not had the stimulus...we'd have fewer jobs today than we actually have."

Zandi was responding to Boehner's contention yesterday that stimulus spending "has gotten us nowhere." Asked whether he agreed with Boehner, Zandi said "no."

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