"It's going to be hard."
President Bush was referring on Monday to finding ways to payfor looming and necessary improvements to the nation'sdeteriorating transportation systems. Remember that Minneapolisbridge collapse? The "no new taxes" and "smaller federalgovernment" approach has not served to maintain and expand thecountry's highways and mass transit in a way that can meet thedemands of the growing population and the realities of aglobalizing economy. The federal government had funded theinterstate system through the gas tax in the 1950s and 1960s. Butsince 1980, our Washington politicos have refused to raise the gastax, sending the Highway Trust Fund into the red by 2009 andleaving the states to fund road improvements most can't afford.
Many cities, regions and states, meanwhile, have short-changedmass transit alternatives to the car and encouraged suburbansprawl. The result -- most of America is car dependent, we face atrillion dollar plus infrastructure deficit, and congestion sapsproductivity, increases driving costs, and creates more (globalwarming) pollution. Been in a traffic jam lately? Noticed trafficgets worse and worse?
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