Our infrastructure sucks. It's quite honestly embarrassing in relation to many other countries. I think everyone can agree that we need to do better and get our roads and bridges upgraded in a major way. Obviously, this bill goes way beyond that, but as for the trucking industry, we will make an attempt to keep the discussion mostly related to how it relates to us.
In all seriousness, most of it relates to us in one way or another. Whether it is the basics of fixing our roads and bridges that are in horrible shape nationwide, increasing bandwidth via 5G technology, upgrading our parking situation, and even the thing that is not really popular among many in the forum here, reduce and zero emissions transportation.
First thing to get out of the way, Buttigieg said on March 29 that a fuel tax or vehicle-miles-traveled tax would not be part of the upcoming infrastructure bill. So we can forget about that for now. Since we are looking at potentially $3 Trillion or more, the money is going to have to come from somewehre. We already know that part of that is coming from an attempt to raise the corporate tax rate, but that only puts a dent in the cost, so pay close attention to how they ultimately decide to pay for this.
In terms of Transportation Infrastructure, The American Jobs Plan would be investing $621 Billion. Of that, only $135 Billion is doing directly to repairing roads and bridges, and highway safety.
How far will $135 Billion get us towards bringing our roads and bridges up to where they should be? It likely won't get us close at all. In fact, when this is all said and done, I will be surprised if we even notice a difference in the quality of the roads. Lots of new painted stripes for the autonomous vehicles, but how much else will be done to actually improve things? I predict it won't be very much.
So, there's a start to the discussion. The current bill is likely nowhere close to what the finalized version will be. That said, what is missing from the bill? What needs to be removed? How should we be paying for it?
And for the record, if you come in here to simply post political attacks, it may be your last post. Who knows, if we get enough good information in this discussion, we can even potentially get something written up and submitted that might get looked at in Washington before this is all finalized. So, have a take, and don't suck.
In all seriousness, most of it relates to us in one way or another. Whether it is the basics of fixing our roads and bridges that are in horrible shape nationwide, increasing bandwidth via 5G technology, upgrading our parking situation, and even the thing that is not really popular among many in the forum here, reduce and zero emissions transportation.
First thing to get out of the way, Buttigieg said on March 29 that a fuel tax or vehicle-miles-traveled tax would not be part of the upcoming infrastructure bill. So we can forget about that for now. Since we are looking at potentially $3 Trillion or more, the money is going to have to come from somewehre. We already know that part of that is coming from an attempt to raise the corporate tax rate, but that only puts a dent in the cost, so pay close attention to how they ultimately decide to pay for this.
In terms of Transportation Infrastructure, The American Jobs Plan would be investing $621 Billion. Of that, only $135 Billion is doing directly to repairing roads and bridges, and highway safety.
How far will $135 Billion get us towards bringing our roads and bridges up to where they should be? It likely won't get us close at all. In fact, when this is all said and done, I will be surprised if we even notice a difference in the quality of the roads. Lots of new painted stripes for the autonomous vehicles, but how much else will be done to actually improve things? I predict it won't be very much.
So, there's a start to the discussion. The current bill is likely nowhere close to what the finalized version will be. That said, what is missing from the bill? What needs to be removed? How should we be paying for it?
And for the record, if you come in here to simply post political attacks, it may be your last post. Who knows, if we get enough good information in this discussion, we can even potentially get something written up and submitted that might get looked at in Washington before this is all finalized. So, have a take, and don't suck.
