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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>I'd suggest that you spend sometime learning
about the current state of our county's transportation infrastructure
problems.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>I've previously written about parts of this and
will not repeat what most informed citizens know.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>W.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=jborden@datawedge.com
href="mailto:jborden@datawedge.com">Jay Borden</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, November 04, 2011 10:03 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=deco@moscow.com href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">Art
Deco</A> ; <A title=Vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision 2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> RE: [Vision2020] Putting Millionaires Before
Jobs</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
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<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">What
is it that this $60B spending will do that the previous “shovel ready stimulus
packages” didn’t?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Jay<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">November 3,
2011<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<H1><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">Putting Millionaires
Before Jobs<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H1>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">There’s
nothing partisan about a road or a bridge or an airport; Democrats and
Republicans have voted to spend billions on them for decades and long supported
rebuilding plans in their own states. On Thursday, though, when President
Obama’s plan to spend $60 billion on infrastructure repairs <A
title="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67568.html
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67568.html">came up for a vote
in the Senate</A>, not a single Republican agreed to break the party’s
filibuster. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">That’s
because the bill would pay for itself with a 0.7 percent surtax on people making
more than $1 million. That would affect about 345,000 taxpayers, <A
title="Washington Post report"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/how-obamas-jobs-policies-would-really-impact-the-rich-hint-not-much/2011/10/24/gIQAVvl3CM_blog.html">according
to Citizens for Tax Justice</A>, adding an average of $13,457 to their annual
tax bills. Protecting that elite group — and hewing to their rigid antitax vows
— was more important to Senate Republicans than the thousands of construction
jobs the bill would have helped create, or the millions of people who would have
used the rebuilt roads, bridges and airports. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Senate
Republicans filibustered the president’s full jobs act last month for the same
reasons. And they have vowed to block the individual pieces of that bill that
Democrats are now bringing to the floor. Senate Democrats have also accused them
of opposing any good idea that might put people back to work and rev the economy
a bit before next year’s presidential election. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">There is
no question that the infrastructure bill would be good for the flagging economy
— and good for the country’s future development. It would directly spend $50
billion on roads, bridges, airports and mass transit systems, and it would then
provide another $10 billion to an infrastructure bank to encourage
private-sector investment in big public works projects. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican of Texas, co-sponsored <A
href="http://hutchison.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=755">an
infrastructure-bank bill in March</A>, and other Republicans have supported
similar efforts over the years. But the Republicans’ determination to stick to
an antitax pledge clearly trumps even their own good ideas.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">A
competing Republican bill, which also failed on Thursday, was cobbled together
in an attempt to make it appear as if the party has equally valid ideas on job
creation and rebuilding. It would have extended the existing highway and public
transportation financing for two years, paying for it with a $40 billion cut to
other domestic programs. Republican senators also threw in a provision that
would block the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing new clean air
rules. Only in the fevered dreams of corporate polluters could that help create
jobs. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Mitch
McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, bitterly accused Democrats of designing
their infrastructure bill to fail by paying for it with a millionaire’s tax, as
if his party’s intransigence was so indomitable that daring to challenge it is
somehow underhanded. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">The only
good news is that the Democrats aren’t going to stop. There are many more jobs
bills to come, including extension of unemployment insurance and the payroll-tax
cut. If Republicans are so proud of blocking all progress, they will have to
keep doing it over and over again, testing the patience of American voters.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">___________________________</SPAN><o:p></o:p></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
title="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A></SPAN><o:p></o:p></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>