More on mass transit

by: Jay Stevens

Tue Jan 27, 2009 at 17:49:26 PM MST

There's some talk in the House of adding as much as $2 billion for mass transit in amendments...but you don't hear much on this in traditional media or among the DC insiders, so I'm guessing we'll be stuck with even less than our already lowballed figure of $10 billion in the final draft of this legislation. (In fact, DeFazio's amendment was already killed for procedural reasons.)

I said it before, I'll say it again: that sucks. Mass transit is popular and smart. But highways provide pork!

Some more comment on mass transit:

Over the past three months, during the economic slump, real wages have actually gone up 23 percent-in part because gas prices have nosedived....But at some point the global economy will recover and get jogging again, at which point oil demand will pick up, and gas prices will skyrocket. Not only will the uptick at the pump start whittling away at household budgets, but the rise in oil prices will act like a stealth tax increase, putting a major crimp in the recovery.

So one solution, then, is to use some of the stimulus spending to improve the energy-intensity of the economy-to make it so that the United States uses less oil (and gas, and coal) per dollar of GDP, and hence, are less vulnerable to the inevitable rise in fossil-fuel prices down the road.

Plumer mentioned Phillip Longman's Washington Monthly report on freight train bottlenecks, and how a little infrastructure spending on rail could make a huge difference in reducing the amount of shipping we do by long-haul trucks. It's reduce the wear and tear on congested highways, reduce gas consumption, and lower the costs of goods that need to be shipped.

What's more, people want to use mass transit! Ridership is up...while lack of funding is driving prices up and services down.

And did I mention the other day that a majority of Americans want this kind of infrastructure spending -- even if it means higher taxes?

Meanwhile Republicans cry for tax cuts and an end to spending on family planning -- also wildly popular, by the way -- and Democrats toss on unneeded highway projects...

Ugh.