Dear President Obama,
I take you as a man of your word. When you campaigned you promised that a new era would be upon us of infrastructure spending. In fighting for your Stimulus Bill, you promised high-speed rail, improved highways and better mass transit. I have to ask Mr. President, are you going to break your word?
Or are you going to continue to fight for what our global rivals, like China, know is smart spending?
While I am pleased you want to embark on a new era of civility, I want you to stand up to Republicans and their Tea Party extremists by making the case to the American people.
Transportation is deeply important and great politics. In the 20s and 30s, the Golden Gate Bridge was partially financed by citizens who purchased Golden Gate Bonds and this spirit remains true today in SF and in my hometown here in the outskirts of Los Angeles, where we voted to increase our taxes to continue to expand our young and eager mass transit network.
Many so-called deficit hawks do not see the big picture. They speak of business yet every corporation I know of spends money on infrastructure, r&d as well as invest in the well being of its employees. If Google stopped spending money on its servers and let them get old and crash, how many people would continue to use Gmail? If Ford stopped spending money on its assembly line, how would the cars be made? If GE stopped spending money on R&D, where would the next product come from. Yet all three of these companies would collapse if our highway system went into decay.
The highway system is the lifeblood of American trade. Letting it decline would be a colossal mistake. Furthermore, letting our expanding population clog them up with commuter traffic will further impede growth. Mass transit, is the future of local and regional transportation and everyone who knows anything about this subject agrees.
Perhaps that is why China has been investing in what will eventually be the world’s largest high-speed rail network.
The GOP and the Chamber of Commerce scared people last fall with an ad about China, in the future, mocking the former US for trying to spend its way out of debt. The ironic thing is that is exactly what China did and on a massive scale that dwarfed our meager Stimulus efforts.
Mr. President, you let the Republicans define your successful efforts as failures. Play hardball with them and push even harder for what we all know is the path to the future: a vastly expanded high-speed rail network, funding for urban and suburban light rail and improved Interstate highways.
Clean, safe, and affordable transportation is important to me. As a supporter of Transportation for America, I’m writing to urge you to talk about the need for a new transportation bill this year in your State of the Union that emphasizes a diverse and sustainable transportation system that revitalizes our aging infrastructure and connects all Americans, young and old, rural and urban, to economic opportunity.
We can no longer afford a transportation system that is congested, inefficient and keeps us dependent on fossil fuels. Yet since September 2009, Congress has simply extended the out-dated transportation policy of the past, ensuring that we remain stuck in place, rather than moving toward a better, more efficient transportation system that makes the United States a global leader.
Instead, we need smart investments that support safe streets for walking and biking, repair roads and bridges, connect low-wage workers to jobs and seniors to essential services, fix bottlenecks in our freight corridors, and create and strengthen public transportation options.
No two American communities are the same and there’s no one-size-fits-all transportation solution. That’s why this bill must reward innovation and empower local entities to make smart decisions.
As a supporter of Transportation for America, I implore you to take bold action to fix this broken and inequitable system and support reform that strengthens our economy, our environment and our health, starting with a strong call for reform during your upcoming address.
Sincerely,
Bryan J. Faragher