If one travels around western Europe and America one difference that you will likely see is that Europe's infrastructure is not crumbling and falling apart. Back in May when in Paris, we saw none of the dilapidated and/or totally inadequate roads and highways that are all to prevalent in America. And don't even get me started on the sad state of America's passenger rail system. Recognizing the need to rebuild America's infrastructure - once the envy of the world - Hillary Clinton has proposed hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure spending. Not only would this improve a transportation system in dire need of improvement among other things, but it would generate lots of jobs. Yes, this would require a change in the tax structure and higher taxes for some, but the alternative is an ever more third world infrastructure in large parts of the nation. Here are highlights of Hillary's proposals:
Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled the first piece of a new jobs agenda on Sunday, promising hundreds of billions of dollars in fresh federal spending in an effort to compete with the liberal economic policies of her primary challengers.
Her initial proposal, a $275 billion infrastructure plan, falls short of the $1 trillion pledged by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to rebuild the nation’s crumbling bridges, ports, highways and airports. But it marks an effort by Clinton to fulfill her party’s desire to use national programs to boost the middle class without alienating independent voters more concerned with increasing the federal deficit.
Already Clinton has proposed an array of new federal programs, including a $350 billion college affordability plan. Other new policies, like universal pre-K, combating substance abuse and expanding family leave, could add hundreds of billions in spending.
Clinton aides say her economic initiatives will be the most expensive of her campaign and plan to roll out proposals for new investments in manufacturing and research in the coming weeks. On Sunday, she added a pledge to give all American households access to high-speed Internet by 2020.
So far, she’s offered few specifics about how she’d fund her plans. Her campaign said that her infrastructure proposal would be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes but didn’t detail which breaks would be targeted.
Yes, there would be tax increases. But is it really right or fare that General Electric and many other large corporations pay no income tax? In Hampton Roads we are strangling economically because the transportation system is so inadequate. Some days traveling roughly 30 miles to the law firm's Virginia Beach office can take 1.5 to 2 hours due to gridlocked traffic.
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