Obama officials visit Minnesota to sell president’s job act
By T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter
Federal transportation officials were in St. Paul on Monday, Sept. 19, lauding the perceived job-creation virtues of government-funded infrastructure projects and the promise of Democratic President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act for creating more.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday in a stop in St. Paul called on Congress to pass President Barack Obama's American Jobs Act. The secretary, who visited a site along the Central Corridor Light Rail Line, now being built, argued that the jobs act promised billions of dollars more for infrastructure improvements and would put people back to work. (Photo by T.W. Budig)
Perched along the edge of a roadbed in front of the Union Depot in downtown St. Paul, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff echoed the president’s refrain that Congress needed to pass the American Jobs Act right now.
“It will be paid for,” said LaHood, speaking the same day Obama sent to Congress a message detailing the finances of the proposed legislation.
“This is a model for America — right here,” said LaHood, speaking above the noise of construction crews working on the 11-mile Central Corridor Light Rail Line and Union Depot.
The Union Depot, which was first completed in 1923 and features an arched waiting room and concourse, will serve as a multi-modal transit hub when its renovation is finished in late 2012.
The feds have slated some $124 million towards the Union Depot project, which will have a peak on-site workforce of 300, according to the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority.
LaHood hailed the president’s Job Act as slating billions of dollars more to infrastructure — to putting construction workers to work.
“We are not going to be dissuaded by our critics,” he said of pursuing transit infrastructure improvements.
There’s a “pent-up” demand for transit funding, he said.
Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton visits with workers along the light rail line. LaHood credited Dayton with eagerly seeking federal assistance on a variety of transportation projects. (Photo by T.W. Budig)
That can be seen in the $10 billion in state funding requests for extra transit dollars freed-up after Florida turned away some $2.3 billion in federal transit funding, he explained.
Rogoff pointed to the light rail line, which will connect St. Paul and Minneapolis, and depot renovation as examples of people setting aside political differences in pursuit of “a big vision.” “Your vision is President Obama’s vision,” he said.
“This is not a photo op’ — this is jobs,” said Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, appearing along with federal and state officials.
Speaking after the press conference, Dayton said he was “site neutral” in terms of the exact route of a proposed high-speed rail line crossing over from Wisconsin. He just wants high-speed rail in Minnesota, he said.
A “linchpin” for the state, said Dayton, would be a line between Rochester and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport.
In his message to Congress on Monday, Obama — besides listing trillions of dollars in proposed budget savings — looked also to raising taxes on wealthier Americans.
Obama proposes letting the so-called Bush Tax Cuts expire, and proposes the “Buffett Rule” —that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families.
The “rule” is named after billionaire Warren Buffett who famously has argued that the federal tax breaks afforded him, a billionaire, are more generous than those afforded his secretary.
Expiration of the tax cuts, tax increases on wealthier Americans, and other tax reforms would be more than enough to capture $1.5 trillion, the president said in his message.
“This plan lives up to a simple idea: as a Nation, we can live within our means while still making the investments we need to prosper,” said Obama.
“And it says that everyone—including millionaires and billionaires—has to pay their fair share,” he said.
“I have little doubt that some of these proposals will not be popular with those who benefit from these affected programs,” said Obama.
“But we are all in this together, and all of us must contribute to getting our economy moving again and on a firm fiscal footing,” he said.
Dayton, who has proposed raising state taxes on the wealthy, indicated that if the state budget remains balanced, he would not pursue tax increases next legislative session. Republicans will not accept them, he noted.
But Dayton also indicated that should be state budget go out of balance, it might reinvigorate the tax debate.
Republican Congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann in a statement expressed disfavor with the president’s budget message.
“If Warren Buffett believes he doesn’t pay enough taxes, then he should write a check today to the treasury, but he and the president shouldn’t exact warfare on the millions of small businesses, on charities and on middle class America with increased tax burdens,” she said.
“The president is compromising the future of our children with his plan to continue spending and increase taxes, and he is ruining the American economy,” she said.
