Sanders Calls for $1 Trillion Investment in Infrastructure
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has gone where Obama has refused (in his State of the Union speech, for example) to go: calling for a $1 trillion investment to repair our disintegrating infrastructure.
Sanders, a potential 2016 Presidential candidate, and now the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, produced the report in advance of hearings sure to be dominated by a Republican bloodlust for budget cuts, with a fresh Congressional Budget Office annual report on the state of the U.S. economy out yesterday afternoon, focused on deficits and the national debt. In his report, Sanders compiles his own list of “deficits,” starting with the Jobs deficit; Infrastructure; Income and Equality (both the lack thereof and the unequal distribution of); Retirement Security (where workers are forced to work longer and retire with smaller pensions); Trade and Education deficit.
Sanders’ report on infrastructure reads:
“For many years we have underfunded the maintenance of our nation’s physical infrastructure. That has to change. It is time to rebuild America. Investing $1 trillion over five years to modernize our country’s physical infrastructure would create and maintain at least 13 million good-paying jobs that our economy desperately needs. We need to get this done.
“For most of our history, the United States proudly led the world in building innovative infrastructure — from a network of canals, to the transcontinental railroad, to the interstate highway system. We launched an ambitious rural electrification program, massive flood control projects, and more.
“These innovations grew our economy, gave our businesses a competitive advantage, provided our workers a decent standard of living, and were the envy of the world. Sadly, that is no longer the case.”
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