Today’s Headlines

  • NYU professor Roubini, who publicly predicted the foreclosure crisis, says 11% unemployment will linger for years without more infrastructure stimulus spending (Daily News)
  • Federal government strikes down Boston’s attempt to reroute hazardous trucking cargo around the center city (Globe)
  • General Electric looks forward to riding the infrastructure stimulus gravy train — though some analysts say GE’s optimism may be misguided (WSJ)
  • General Motors sees the upside in a $1.1 billion third-quarter loss (NYT)
  • Prospects for a gas tax increase to fund Virginia transportation projects appears dead in the wake of GOP Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell’s recent victory (WTOP)
  • With friends like these…? Sen. Byrd (D-WV), who has earmarked more than $350 million for an Appalachian highway to be named after himself, urges the White House to pass a new long-term transport bill (Byrd Press)
  • Minnesotans christen their second rail transit line, the Northstar (MinnPost)

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One More Sign That the Stimulus Traded Infrastructure for Tax Cuts

By Elana Schor |
The independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an economic analysis of the Obama administration’s stimulus law this week, and one chart in particular (see below right, or a larger version here) is getting a lot of attention from bloggers, including Ezra Klein and Ryan Avent.  (Image: CBO) The chart’s message, simply put: the elements of […]

Stimulus and Outrage Around the Network

By Sarah Goodyear |
Much of the talk on the Streetsblog Network has been about the stimulus package that goes before the House of Representatives today, as members mobilize their readers in support of Rep. Jerry Nadler’s amendment adding money for transit. More of this, please. One interesting stimulus-related note is on Gristmill, where David Roberts cites poll numbers […]

Stimulus Draft, the Day After

By Ben Fried |
For everyone hoping that an $825 billion stimulus package might advance a visionary national agenda for sustainable transportation, yesterday’s release of a draft economic recovery bill didn’t deliver the goods. Nor did it include some pretty easy lifts, like the $1.7 billion for transit operations that the House approved in an earlier bill last summer. […]

The Footnote to All Those Complaints About Tax Cuts as Stimulus

By Elana Schor |
Transportation reformers and status quo-lovers alike smacked their foreheads in frustration when the White House’s first stimulus plan lowballed infrastructure to make room for tax breaks that had little demonstrable effect on job creation — particularly the $70 billion adjustment of the alternative minimum tax (AMT). HOT lanes on Virginia’s I-495 are one of seven […]

CBO Echoes Obama’s Candor on the Pitfalls of ‘Shovel-Readiness’

By Elana Schor |
During last month’s White House jobs summit, President Obama carved out some common ground with critics of his first stimulus law’s $47 billion in infrastructure spending — which was distributed mainly by the book through state DOTs. "The term "shovel-ready," let’s be honest here, doesn’t always live up to its billing," he acknowledged. The CBO […]