The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
Investing in America's infrastructure is an imperative, but the funding to fix our crumbling roads and bridges is running out -- and only Congress can reauthorize it. And allowing this funding to run out will put at risk nearly 700,000 American jobs.
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on infrastructure near the Tappan Zee Bridge, at the Washington Irving Boat Club in Tarrytown, New York, May 14, 2014. Construction on the new Tappan Zee bridge can be seen adjacent to the current bridge. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Did you know that 65% of our country's major roads are rated in less than good condition? Or that a quarter of our bridges need significant repair or can't handle today's traffic?
Investing in America's infrastructure is an imperative, but the funding to fix our crumbling roads and bridges is running out -- and only Congress can reauthorize it.
And here's the kicker: Allowing these funds to run out will put at risk nearly 700,000 American jobs -- and more than 112,000 active projects that are currently fixing our roads and bridges.
In remarks today from Tarrytown, New York, the President explained why investing in our nation's infrastructure is so important:
Building a world-class transportation system is one of the reasons America became an economic superpower in the first place. But over the past 50 years, as a share of our economy, our investment in transportation has shrunk by 50 percent. Think about that. Our investment in transportation has been cut by half.
You know what other countries are doing? European countries now invest twice as much as we do. China invests four times as much as we do in transportation. One study recently found that over time, we’ve fallen to 19th place when it comes to the quality of our infrastructure -- 19th place. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like America being 19th. I don’t like America being second. I want us to be first when it comes to infrastructure around the world, because businesses are going to come where there’s good infrastructure to move businesses, move people, move services.
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