Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Road program would stimulate economy

Funding road programs is the way to stimulate a sluggish economy and put people back to work.

So said Fourth Congressional District Representative Mike Ross in discussing the Transportation Reauthorization Bill. This bill is passed by Congress every six years and contains all the new road programs in the nation for this time period.

The problem, Ross said, is President George W. Bush wants to spend $250 billion on highways over the next six years while the nation has $1 trillion in road needs. "In the 4th District we have $4 billion in road needs. Not everything will be met under this bill."

Ross said he voted for the president's tax cut in 2001 because the country was running a surplus, it was before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and America wasn't involved in two wars. "A lot has changed since then. At a time we're asking our men and women in uniform to make the ultimate sacrifice, going halfway around the world, it's wrong for the president to be proposing a tax cut for the wealthiest at this time. It should be a shared sacrifice.

"Never in U.S. history has there been a tax cut when we were at war. It may be good politics," he added, "but it's a bad fiscal move."

Pres. Bush, Ross said, is sending $1 billion a week to help rebuild Iraq. When the U.S. took over in Iraq nine months ago, America began providing free health care for the Iraqi citizens while there are 44 million Americans without any health care at all. "We should provide all the money and resources necessary for the troops to get the job done," he said, "and back to their families. We have no business rebuilding Iraq. We need to spend the money in the U.S. I want to do what it takes to protect our soldiers."

Ross said he supported Pres. Bush and agrees the world needed to be rid of Saddam Hussein, but once this was accomplished, and Iraq had created a new government, it should have been turned over to the United Nation and let it be an international front, not an American one. Security should have been handled by NATO-led forces with the U.S. being the largest force involved, but sharing with the rest of the world.

"If NATO-led forces were there," he said, "we wouldn't be sending 3,000 Arkansas National Guardsmen to Iraq, but be sending 60,000 troops home with the rest of the world sharing the danger and expense."

The current situation in the Middle East, Ross said, started with Osama Bin Laden. A total of 120,000 troops have been sent to Iraq, while an additional 10,000 troops are in Afghanistan. "We've basically abandoned the mission there," he said. "Osama's running loose and the Al Quida is training there to attack the U.S."

Pres. Bush, Ross said, wants to fund 25 percent of the road needs budget while proposing a $1.1 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest in the nation, and presented Congress with a budget including $521 billion in deficit spending. "The bottom line is the big issue is roads. This is about priorities. I want to take half the tax cut and put it into the road program. If we did, it would create 42,000 new jobs in every congressional district in the nation. This would mean 18 million new jobs. Road programs are job programs."

In the last three years, Ross said, three million American jobs have been lost, with a million going to China alone. While there is the need to recognize we live in a global economy, he continued, there has to be a way to make trade agreements work. Ross has voted against all trade agreements proposed in the last three years.

The free trade agreements, he said, aren't fair trade agreements and what has been exported most from the U.S. has been jobs.

On the transportation bill, he said, his focus is on the I-69 and I-49 projects, along with getting Highway 167 widened to four lanes while finishing the Hot Springs expressway. "This will create jobs and economic opportunities for generations to come," he said.

"My pet project, and I'm optimistic it can be funded, is an overpass for Prescott. This is a safety issue."

Prescott, he said, is the county seat and the train traffic has almost doubled since the merger of the railroads and the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Should the project be funded, though, all the money would not be received at once. The appropriations bill covers six years, and the amount for the overpass would be paid accordingly. The state, he added, would have to fund 20 percent of the cost.

"If it's funded," he said, "it would be about seven years before it could be built because of the way the money comes in."