(CNN) -- President Obama said Tuesday that the country already is "seeing shovels hit the ground" on the first infrastructure repair project funded through the Transportation Department's share of the $787 billion stimulus bill.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, "The work begins today in Montgomery County, Maryland, where a work crew is starting on a project to resurface Maryland State Highway 650 -- a very busy road that has not been fully repaired in 17 years."
The resurfacing contract is going to a Pennsylvania-based family-owned company, American Infrastructure, LaHood said.
He said the project will support 60 jobs. "And that's how we're going to get the country back on its feet," LaHood added.
Shovels hit the ground' on stimulus project, Obama says - CNN.com
Woohoo, the new stimulus is here, the new stimulus is here (you guess the movie).
Mark Compton, director of government affairs for American Infrastructure, said his company received $2.1 million in federal funds, by way of the Maryland State Highway Administration.
The money will be used to repave and add safety features to a stretch of the highway.
Compton said the cash infusion is the "catalyst" to create 60 jobs, including bringing back some laid-off
Mr. Compton later in the article says he hopes to retain the workers past the 6 months that this project is slated for. Oh yeah, getting Americans jobs. Of course if these workers can’t be retained after the project, they might be able to get some seasonal employment, Santa at the mall, something like that.
These are the jobs that the Government thinks will get the economy going? Temporary jobs?
Add to this, infrastructure in this Nation has crumbled, roads and bridges falling into disrepair (some just fallin). All of this taking a toll on our vehicles, reducing fuel economy. Who is supposed to take care of these things? Mortgage lenders? Big Banks? Auto Manufacturers? No-Bid Government Contractors? No. The Government, and they tax our fuel supposedly to do just that.
In looking at the topic it would seem that commercial enterprises do not pay for fuel taxes, that tax, if it is there is one, passed to the consumer or is a write-off as an expense, for the business. But the lowly peasants have to pay tax on each gallon of gas. Do you know how much? The average as of January 2009 (According to the American Petroleum Institute) is $0.45/gallon. (Low is Alaska at $0.184, high is New York at $0.597
No biggie right? I fill up the family global warming machine and if I go from empty I donate $19.01 to the kingdom.
So I begin to wonder to myself, where is my $19 worth of safe, smooth roads this week? Then I wondered, how many other people might be contributing to the kingdom for smooth, safe roads and bridges?
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, for just auto and motorcycle gas/diesel usage in 2005 (the latest year available) 74,085,000,000 gallons of gas were used. Now add all of the categories under “Highway”, and you get 174,286,000,000. 174 BILLION gallons in 2005! What was the average tax collected for that amount fuel used? $78,428,700,000
So in one year state and federal government takes in nearly $79 Billion in taxes, and what is there to show for that? Where did that money go? Why are the roads and bridges in the condition that they are in? And if the system is so messed up, how is it, without actually fixing the system, this stimulus boondoggle will be any better than the $79 Billion a year for the past 5 to 10 years that has been squandered?
Note to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, if your data is 3 years out of date, you flipping fail, obviously a government office that needs to be trimmed to reduce the deficit.
The mean nasty oil companies make horrendous profits, right? Well of all places, Congressional Research Service has a paper that outlines oil company profits for 2005. According to that paper the Oil Companies profit was almost $140 billion. Realizing they are getting profit from other oils, natural gas etc, but on a profit dollar per gallon of highway fuel, that math (140/174) comes out to $0.80 per gallon, if you were to add in oils, distillates, natural gas to mix, I’m sure the profit per gallon of highway fuel is substantially lower. How does this compare with the $0.45/gallon average tax? The oil companies have equipment to maintain, regulations to keep up with, and research and development to worry about. The Government?
