Surface Transportation Bill vs. “In God We Trust ” – American politicians and their priorities
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This posted was created on my Storify back in Nov 2011 but did not make it to my website. So, here I’m making it available for my readers. Hope you like it.————————————————————————————————-
Yesterday (Nov 2, 2011), the nation’s political establishment (i.e., the members of the House) decided that it is high time the national priorities be rearranged and everyone be reminded that our national motto is “In God We Trust” and not “E Pluribus Unum”.
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In God We Trust. In Congress, not so muchBut God says that won't happen again, and In God We Trust. God once destroyed the Egyptian economy by making the place dark and givin…
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Money House GOP spent today on creating jobs: $0. Money GOP spent on reaffirming “In God We Trust”: $215,000. We are governed by children.
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This comes at a time when the nation is reeling from one of the worst political/economic times it has endured, EVER. Our economy is grinding itself to a halt; folks are battling for jobs; protests are raging from coast to coast; and those who are lucky to have a job are pondering how to manage the looming financial uncertainty that is only growing larger by the day. The past couple of years (since 2008) has been tumultuous, to put it lightly, and we have endured crisis after crisis, erupting in every part of the globe (Euro-Zone crisis triggered by the Greeks, volatile trade relationships, wars in two continents, etc). Amidst all this, the congress still decided that it is time for reaffirming our faith in god.
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In addition, we have an aging infrastructure that needs to be urgently repaired/upgraded and the funding vehicle get this issue addressed – the surface transportation bill – is yet to see the light of day in Washington. It has been over two years – 763 days, 19 hrs, 27 mins, to be precise – since the last transportation bill (SAFETEA-LU expired on Sept 30, 2009; ). And we all know that putting folks to build our roads, bridges and railways is one good way to address the infrastructure crisis as well as the unemployment crisis. But hey, that’s what a rational thinker would do, right? The congress leadership does not seem to be in a hurry at this juncture to get anything done to improve our transportation infrastructure.
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Time’s Up: Get moving on a transformational bill!The clock is ticking. Is Congress on it? Every six years, Congress sets the country’s transportation and infrastructure priorities – fund…
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What’s even even worse is the state of a similar funding bill for FAA. According to TheHill.com, the House’s version of the long-term authorization bill, which would be the first for the FAA since 2004, would provide the agency with $59 billion over the next four years. The agency has been operating on a series of 22 short-term extensions of that last authorization since it expired in 2007.
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House reaffirms ‘In God We Trust’ as national motto t.co/r8Xei2Xc
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And guess what? It is not like this is the first time it happened. “In God We Trust” had already been reaffirmed once before as the national motto, by another act of Congress in 2002. The President must be one hell of an angry man at this stage watching what’s happening in the House.Like any responsible citizen who has a stake in the future of this country, the President got pretty upset watching elected representatives dedicate their time to discuss an issue that is not definitely at the top of the priority list (at least not for the majority in this country at this time in history). After all, he has been pressing the Congress to pass his Job’s bill (or at least elements of the proposed bill) for months so that the unemployed can get a chance to put food on their plates. And still there is no progress on that front despite his gazillion calls/pleas for action .
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Obama calls on Congress to approve highway funding bill – 44 – The …Aug 31, 2011… impasse shut down parts of the nation's airline transportation system. … to approve a funding extension to the Su…
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Obama Says Deteriorating Infrastructure Costly to U.S. EconomyHe also announced plans to speed up grants and funding for surface transportation projects. Aging infrastructure costs businesses and fam…
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So, like any red blooded individual he got hot under his collar and let it rip. As seen in the video below (via Huffington Post), he went after the House leadership. This afternoon, in a speech from beneath the D.C. area’s Key Bridge, Obama told spectators that Congress had time to bring up votes on aspects of the American Jobs Act, but were instead dealing with more frivolous legislation.
“And if Congress tell you they don’t have time, they’ve got time to do it,” Obama said.
“In the House of Representatives, what have you guys been doing, John?” Obama continued, calling out Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio). “You’ve been debating a commemorative coin for baseball. You’ve had legislation reaffirming that ‘In God We Trust’ is our motto. That’s not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work.”
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Obama Jabs Congress For ‘In God We Trust’ Vote
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Obama rips 'In God we trust' votePresident Obama on Wednesday mocked a vote Tuesday evening in the House of Representatives to reaffirm "In God we trust" as the…
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Obama: 'In God We Trust' Vote Not Creating Jobsby Kimberly Schwandt | November 02, 2011 The House vote to reaffirm that "In God We Trust" is the US motto is "not putting…
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Obama: In Jobs Bills We TrustHe's very upset that the House of Representatives just wasted its time reaffirming the national motto of “In God We Trust,” which Oba…
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This political move may be well received in the Bible belt, but the rest of the country is not reacting nicely to this style of politicking. If you don’t believe me, here is a sample of how the citizenry is reacting (on Twitter) to this style of law-making at Capitol Hill.
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I’ve never been more proud of POTUS than today. GOP is more interested on “In God we trust” than jobs. #tcot #dumberthandirt #gop
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House has done nothin bout Jobs but has re-affirmed the IN GOD WE TRUST motto WTF! WTF !WTF! Is that what YOU voted for in 10? @cspanwj
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RT @BadAstronomer: Just in case you weren’t angry enough, it cost $200,000 for Congress to reaffirm the motto “In God We Trust”. t.co/tma8Ionj
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House overwhelmingly passes pointless resolution to affirm ‘In God We Trust’ as national motto, no new jobs created t.co/xodpXOYq
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RT @UnderdogLib: MT @JohnFugelsang: This week Food Stamp rates hit an all-time high, & Congress voted to reaffirm ‘In God We Trust’ as US Motto. Questions?
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Finally, today ( on November 3, 2011), the politicians some how suddenly realized that people have sent them to Washington to focus on important things and decided to get their act together and arrived at the congress to work on the Infrastructure bill. Right off the bat everyone, including the general public and the press, knew nothing will get accomplished, given the ideological stands each party has taken on this bill. But that did not stop the theatrics from happening – they still debated and voted on the proposed Infrastructure bill. CBS’s Mark Knoller live tweeted the events as they unfurled and the outcome of this voting was there for all of us to see.
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Senate now voting on bringing Obama $50-billion infrastructure funding jobs bill measure to floor for debate & vote,. Needs 60 votes.
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Our beloved Transportation writer, Larry Ehl (www. transportationissuesdaily.com) wrote a detailed piece on this legislative agenda. According to Larry, the Democratic version of the infrastructure funding bill will fail because Republicans oppose the financing mechanism of surcharge on millionaire’s income. The Republican version (a two-year extension of SAFETEA-LU, with regulatory reforms added in) will fail in part because Democrats will oppose many of the proposed policy and regulatory changes (click here to read Larry’s post)
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Senate vote is 51-49. The infrastructure measure did not get the 60 votes needed to proceed to debate and vote. A defeat for Pres Obama.
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Tit for tat. By Senate vote of 47-53, GOP Infrastructure Bill also fails to get 60 votes to proceed to debate..
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And for the ones like myself sitting outside and wondering what is happening in the congress, the Journal of Commerce offered the perspectives of House T & I Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) and why he favors a long term bill compared to the Democrats’ proposal: “…Mica defended his six-year transportation plan from () accusations that the bill wouldn’t maintain current funding levels as he claimed. “My floor is the current level … and I’m hoping we can find even more money and increase on a cost-of-living or some other incremental basis the funding for a six-year authorization,” said the Florida Republican.……Mica said that makes it impossible to plan long-term projects such as a long-delayed New York subway line he toured Tuesday with Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y Mica also said ways must be found to speed the approval of major projects. “Shovel-ready has become a national joke,” he said. “It takes six to eight years just to get the approval, to go through the red tape, the paperwork … That nonsense has to stop. The president freed up 14 projects a couple of weeks ago. Fourteen projects? We’ve got 14,000 projects tied up in red tape and paperwork.”
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As much as I disagree with Mica, this is one case where I agree with him wholeheartedly. We need to provide a sustainable long term solution, not the short term extensions, and expedite the approval process for major projects. That said, I disagree vehemently with Mica’s proposed $286 billion bill because it represents a 16 percent cut to the current spending level. This is a non-starter, because the funding for transportation sector has been steadily declining over the decades and has reached a very a low-level already (as percentage of %GDP, shown below is a sample of how bad it has gotten). Cutting it further is a a remarkably dull move and would only hamper our economic progress and not help in resuscitating the ailing economy.
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So where do we go from here? A very important question but the answer for that is yet to be determined. But whatever we do as a nation, It is high time we refocus on our priorities and engage in sensible governance and not indulge in things to sway the country’s progress for a few political points in the 2012 election. Failure to do some course correction at this stage, the Speaker and his party men will be handed a real bad outcome in the 2012 elections. Whoever gets to the White House or Congress after the elections in 2012, he/she will be inheriting an economic mess and an infrastructure network that degrades by the day because of sheer neglect/lack of resources and our abject failure to legislate properly. I sincerely hope House Speaker and his party men realize that posturing and politicking is doing more harm to the country than they intend to do. Let’s sincerely hope it does not get to that point where the Americans look like Greeks, rioting in the streets. Oh wait, we are already half-way there with the Occupy Wall Street Protests and it won’t be too long before these peaceful protesters, many of whom are unemployed, lose their patience and turn this into something really ugly!
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