Bloomberg’s New ‘New Deal’

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is incensed with the federal and regulatory response to our current economic malaise, and has called for a new New Deal:

We have the opportunity to get the stimulus right this time - if we take a different approach: putting more Americans to work building the infrastructure that we need to compete in the global economy and to remain the world’s economic superpower.

It’s time for a new New Deal - one that invests more money, more wisely. It is as impossible to imagine America without FDR’s New Deal as it is to imagine the country without Eisenhower’s interstate highway system. Those massive public investments epitomized both the vision and courage that are desperately lacking in today’s Washington.

Candidates and elected officials listen to voters, but who talks about infrastructure? We must start talking - and start delivering a very simple message to our elected officials: Stop playing politics and start putting people to work building America’s future.

With rising (but still historically low) unemployment, such an infrastructure program could provide our country with valuable works that would pay dividends for decades.  We could improve transportation, spend a little public money on domestic alternative energy, or fix bridges and dams.  The crazy people over at LaRouche PAC have actually been making noise on this issue for a while; even before the specter of hurricane Katrina put infrastructure investments on the map again.  Larouche PAC, and the Army Corps of Engineers contend that the system of dams in the Ohio River Valley is dangerously under-maintained.  ”In 2004, nearly a quarter of the lock chambers on the Ohio River exceeded their 50-year design life,” stated a Corps press release.  The Upper Mississippi/Illinois Waterway installations—37 dams and locks on a 1,200 river-mile system—are even in worse shape than those of the Ohio.

In case you think inland waterways are just some minor issue that Congress can afford to forget about, the Army Corps of Engineers has some great stats on the goods that travel through Louisville’s McAlpine Locks:

56 million tons of commodities were shipped through McAlpine Locks in 2006.  These shipments had a combined value of $11.6 billion.  The leading commodity shipped through McAlpine Locks was coal, which made up 38% of the total tonnage.  

Considering how important these waterways are to our energy distribution (not to mention energy security), couldn’t our leaders invest some money in keeping the infrastructure working?

Mike Bloomberg has a point, but in an election year, will Americans listen to a man who is not on a Presidential ticket?

Mayor says to snap out of economic funk, U.S. needs new New Deal

1 Comment to Bloomberg’s New ‘New Deal’

1. 

   i don’t see any way around continuing to neglect commodities related infrastructure. fortunately, under some set of future conditions investment in new supply and infrastructure will really kick in.
parksmarts on August 6th, 2008

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