Mike Huckabee on the U.S. Infrastructure

How handy dandy that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is mentioned in this Des Moines Register Editorial and is receiving attention for his comments about putting people to work building and repairing the country’s infrastructure. Great Idea but another former Governor spoke out on this topic months ago! I find it more than interesting that ideas, concerns, and issues that Mike Huckabee discussed during the primaries were on target then and on target now.

Had the media, Liberals, and so-called Conservatives been paying more attention to Former Governor Huckabee instead of hammering away that Huckabee was a former Baptist pastor the American voters would have a better chance to know that Mr. Huckabee had any ideas that were helpful and useful for the country! Add the slanted news coverage to the fact that Huckabee was shoved off to the side of the stage during debates and received a rare question or two- well… this is past history.

I want to highlight with this post that Mike Huckabee was a man with a plan then and a man of wisdom now. “We have bridges falling down on people in the US. Infrastructure in this country has been neglected, whether it’s our airports, our bridges, and our roads, and I don’t think there’s a governor in this state that wouldn’t tell you that you’ll create more jobs and you’ll build it with American workers, American concrete and American steel. That’s stimulus.”

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Mike_Huckabee_Technology.htm

Infrastructure: Stimulus, Safety, Security, & Sustainability

My four guiding principles on infrastructure can be summed up simply: Stimulus, Safety, Security, and Sustainability.

1. Stimulus: I support the short-term economic stimulus package, but we must also look to the next century, not just to the next few quarters.
2. Safety: Infrastructure-based economic development is not just about giving our economy a shot in the arm–it is also about protecting and preserving what we have already developed.
3. Security: Allowing these weaknesses to continue provides openings for the terrorists to exploit.
4. Sustainability: I have always been a conservationist. Stewardship of the air and land and soil is very important to me. I will follow the principle I learned from the Boy Scouts: Always leave the land better than when you found it. I am proud of my record in Arkansas, building constructive consensus on key issues. I look forward to bringing the same leadership to America.

Source: Campaign website, www.mikehuckabee.com, “Issues” Feb 3, 2008

Infrastructure in this country has been neglected

We’ve got a crumbling infrastructure. I don’t have to tell people that their traffic is clogged. Every billion dollars we spend on highway construction results in 47,500 jobs. The average American is sitting in traffic 38 hours a year. That’s a full work week, not on vacation, not spent with their kids, stuck in traffic, just sitting there behind the wheel, pointing fingers, usually one at a time, at other motorists and very upset with what’s going on around them in this traffic. The point is we are burning a lot of fuel up in the air, polluting the environment. We’re wasting time. Parents never get home to their kids’ soccer games and recitals. We have bridges falling down on people in the US. Infrastructure in this country has been neglected, whether it’s our airports, our bridges, and our roads, and I don’t think there’s a governor in this state that wouldn’t tell you that you’ll create more jobs and you’ll build it with American workers, American concrete and American steel. That’s stimulus

Source: 2008 Republican debate at Reagan Library in Simi Valley

Jan 30, 2008

Every $1B spent on infrastructure creates 47,500 jobs

Q: You’ve said you’ve got some serious problems with the Bush economic stimulus package.

A: The problem I have is that taxpayers will spend their $150 billion in rebates to buy imports from China. So whose economy is being stimulated? What I suggested was, we have a nation whose infrastructure is crumbling. Our roads, bridges, airports clogged up. Texas A&M did a study, found that the average American in an urban setting loses 38 hours a year–that’s a full work week–stuck in traffic because of clogged traffic patterns. Now, $150 billion would expand the interstate by two lanes, I-95, from Bangor, Maine, to Miami. There are places all over America where our infrastructure is choked. Every billion dollars we spend on infrastructure creates 47,500 jobs. And we do it with American labor, American cement, American steel. That’s why I’m saying that that’s a real long-term stimulus package. But it does more than just stimulate the economy, it actually stimulates jobs for Americans for a change.

Source: CNN Late Edition: 2008 presidential series with Wolf Blitzer Jan 27, 2008

$150B for highway infrastructure is better stimulus package

If we’re going to spend $150 billion [as in Bush's economic stimulus package], I’d like to suggest that maybe we add two lanes of highway from Bangor all the way to Miami on I-95. A third of the United States population lives within 100 miles of that. This nation’s infrastructure is falling apart. And if we built those lanes of highways–with American labor, American steel, American concrete–I believe it would do more to stimulate the economy.

And the reason I say that is because when we were going through a recession in my state, we were in the middle of a billion-dollar highway construction program that brought about 40,000 jobs and brought a billion dollars of capital into the economy. That’s a long- term stimulus package that I think would have more impact on the American long-term future. And it would keep social capital from being wasted, fuel wasted. A lot of people sit around in traffic every day, and we’ve done nothing about it.