For the third time in four weeks, Senate Republicans voted in unison Nov. 3 to block a piece of President Obama’s jobs package, derailing an infrastructure spending bill spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

The bill would have provided $50 billion in infrastructure spending to get the economy moving and another $10 billion for a national infrastructure bank. The bill died during a procedural vote because it was paid for by a 0.7 percent surtax on people earning more than a million dollars a year.

This is new ground for Klobuchar, who’s made bipartisan outreach central to her time in office. Of all the bills she co-sponsored this year, more than three-quarters had Republican support.

This one, like her others, should have been another no-brainer for cross-party backing: Twenty-five million Americans need full-time work at a time when the infrastructure we all rely upon is literally crumbling.

The American Society of Civil Engineers recently issued its U.S. Infrastructure Report Card reviewing the quality and state of repair of such things as bridges, dams, drinking water, roads and schools. Overall, America’s infrastructure scored a “D.” The highest single grade went to solid waste, awarded a measly “C plus.”

Filibustering the bill so it couldn’t come up for debate, never mind a final vote, underscores just how far Republicans have run off the rails in their anti-tax extremism. And it again reveals the nonsense undergirding their argument that more tax cuts are needed to rebuild the economy because the federal government doesn’t create jobs.

If tax cuts were the answer, the United States would have been awash in jobs during the Bush administration, rather than hemorrhaging 750,000, 700,000 and 800,000 respectively in its last three months. If tax cuts were the answer, the Wall Street Journal wouldn’t have written in January 2009 that George Bush “shows the worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.” For the record, that record dates back to President Truman.

Public investment built the interstate highway system. It vastly expanded computer technologies during the Space Race. And it gave us the Internet. Would Republicans actually have us believe that not one single job was created as the result?

The Federal Highway Administration periodically calculates the impact of highway spending on direct employment. Last time out, in 2007, the agency found that every $1 billion spent supports 30,000 jobs. It’s not alone. Energy-efficiency retrofits, including the Weatherization Assistance Program, began upgrading 530,000 buildings nationwide this year, employing 25,000 workers. Three new clean-energy programs cost the government around $7 billion and created more than 120,000 jobs.

Sen. Klobuchar is hopeful that her bill will come up for another vote and, next time, will pass. That won’t happen if Republicans again slam the brakes on even allowing a debate.

 

Cynthia Moothart

League of Rural Voters

Minneapolis