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To hear Eric Cantor tell it, the president’s jobs bill is dead and rotting in the House — at least in its current form. But that doesn’t mean Obama’s ballyhooed jobs speech last month was totally ineffective. In fact, it already seems to have quietly nudged the dial on at least one key issue, prodding the House GOP to consider a bigger transportation spending bill.
Some quick context: Gas-tax revenue, as we know, is shrinking over time: The tax isn’t indexed to inflation, and Americans have cut down on driving during the recession. That means there’s less and less federal money to bankroll new highway and transit projects. (True, Congress could always just raise the gas tax, but, well...) So, earlier this year, House Republicans unveiled a six-year, $230 billion transportation bill that would’ve represented a 30 percent cut in spending from current levels. That’s all we can afford, they said, with current gas-tax levels. Even Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica sounded apologetic about it.
That proposal sits uneasily with interest groups. Unions clasped hands with the Chamber of Commerce and argued that a sharp cut in infrastructure spending didn’t make a whole lot of sense right now. State transportation officials moaned loudly. And Obama’s jobs speech, which included a call for $50 billion in new infrastructure spending, put Republicans on the defensive. The result? Mica is now toiling away on a new $300 billion highway bill that would keep funding at current levels for the next six years. Problem solved, right? Well, sort of.
For the full article, visit the Washington Post.
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