California Conservative

The Bemidji Pioneer reports that Jim Oberstar is still pushing his gas tax increase. They’re also saying that “a change in public opinion is needed”:

From rural highways used to haul grain to the heavily traveled interstate system, the country must invest more to maintain and expand its infrastructure to remain competitive in a global economy, said U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn.

Also, officials said, a change in public opinion is needed because people tend only to care about infrastructure issues when they are affected by a transportation problem, such as the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse.

“We’re not making the investments we need, in neither the public sector nor the private sector, to keep up with the demand on our system that our economy is creating,” Oberstar said during a Monday forum sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies.

Oberstar, who is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said without constant investment, the country will see a deterioration of its roadways, even as they become more important to the economy.

“We’re going to need more revenue. There’s no question about it,” he said.

The task facing transportation officials mainly is to find new revenue sources, said Bud Shuster, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and House transportation committee chairman. He said a variety of options must be considered, including a gasoline tax increase and toll road systems in which the proceeds are used to maintain and expand highways.

“The problem is money,” Shuster said.

Bud Shuster was the House Transportation Committee Chairman that passed a pork-laden Highway Bill in 2005. To have him say that “the problem is money” is appalling. The problem isn’t money; the problem is politicians like Rep. Shuster and Rep. Oberstar whose waste of taxpayers’ money is robbing legislatures of the money needed to maintain roads and bridges.

I’ve said before that the earmarks that the Shusters and Oberstars of the world need to funding Bridges to Nowhere. It’s galling to hear them say that We The People need to change. That’s wrong-headed thinking. They need to change. They need to stop piling $24 billion worth of earmarks into Highway Bills. They need to stop using the Highway Trust Fund to build bike trails and interpretive centers. They shouldn’t even talk about a federal gas tax increase until they’ve changed their wasteful habits.

It isn’t likely that they’ll change until We The People make it known loudly, consistently and persistently that we won’t tolerate their wasteful ways. We The People need to start making noise about that change in Washington mentality ASAP.

Communicating with the public is important to building support for costly highway projects, said Tim Martin, a former Illinois transportation secretary.

“Find out what the public wants. Give the public what they want. Tell the public that you’re giving it to them. Remind them that you gave it to them,” Martin said. “And, celebrate your successes.”

Mr. Martin isn’t aware that the Heartland definition of success is dramatically different than the Washington definition of success. The Washington definition of success is usually measured in whether it helped them win re-election. The Heartland definition of success is always measured in whether our roads and bridges are properly maintained.

Our definition is the definition that matters because Congress works for us.

I’d bet that Martin didn’t realize what he said. Think about the implications to his saying “Find out what the public wants. Give the public what they want. Tell the public that you’re giving it to them.” What he’s essentially done is say that Congress puts a higher priority on low priority items than they give to important things like maintaining roads and bridges.

My friend King doesn’t mince words when he hears transportation advocates talking about needs. King’s said numerous times that advocates use very subjective criteria to define needs. Martin doesn’t even pretend to worry about needs. Leaders don’t give “the public what they want.” They tell them what needs fixing, then they fix the things that need fixing.

I wonder what would happen if we started a campaign that asked every congressman nationwide to sign a pledge saying that they wouldn’t propose earmarks? I’d bet that John Murtha and Jim Oberstar would have eruptions. That alone makes it worthwhile.

Another thing we should do is get Derek Brigham to design “It’s the Spending Stupid” bumper stickers, then have organizations like the Taxpayers League and the Chamber of Commerce buy and distribute them to anyone that wants these bumper stickers.

On the big picture, Oberstar’s and Shuster’s statements are additional proof that Washington is totally out of touch with real people. That makes it all the more important that we flood their email inboxes with ‘doses of reality’ that tells them that wasting our money isn’t acceptable.

My question to you is simple: Are you willing to join me in this fight? All it takes is for all of us to step forward and send a clear, unambiguous message to Washington.

Technorati Tags: Jim Oberstar, Bud Shuster, Earmarks, Tax Increases, John Murtha, Federal Gas Tax, Transportation, Washington, Wasteful Spending, We The People, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 8:10 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Corruption, Election 2008, Liberals, Special Interests, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.