Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that it is critically important for the United States to rebuild its national
transportation infrastructure - its highways, bridges, roads, ports, air, and train systems - to strengthen user safety,
bolster our long-term competitiveness and ensure our economy continues to grow.
* Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will address the infrastructure
challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal
transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation's most challenging
transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to
provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two million
new direct and indirect jobs and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.
Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure.
$150 billion is a lot of money and its influence will be felt across the country.
The America Society of Civil Engineers recently reported that 26% of the nation's 600,000 bridges are in desperate need
of repair. There can't be another catastrophe similar to the Minnesota bridge collapse in 2007. The estimated cost is $10
billion dollars per year for the next 20 years. That is a fraction of what is needed to repair and upgrade highways across
the country: estimated cost of $94 billion per year. The US government has recently announced plans of expanding its
highway system by 80% by 2015. The Democrats have already pledged to spend $60 billion US per year over the next 10
years for transportation and infrastructure build up.
If this is happening in the United States, it will happen around the world. Last week, governments from Europe
announced additional infrastructure spending in 2009 and 2010 of $12 billion. And then there is China which is expected
to be the greatest of all. There is a trillion dollar railroad project underway, with millions of miles of oil and gas pipelines
to build and new infrastructure needed to support an ever growing middle class. The next few years will be anchored by
growth and development within each country's border. Infrastructure will be at the heart of our recovery.
All the best with your investments,
