Sweeney: Nation Needs to Literally Build a Better Future

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/20/sweeney-nation-needs-to-literally-build-a-better-future/

by Mike Hall, Feb 20, 2008

The best hope for creating an economic stimulus blueprint to rebuild the nation’s crumbling bridges, roads, waterways, rails and schools is aligning organizations with diverse interests behind a comprehensive plan, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

“We all have a stake in this—every one of us—and we all have different motives for wanting action. For the AFL-CIO, it’s good jobs. For others, it is something different. We also depend on our infrastructure to keep our families and our communities, health, comfortable and safe, and to keep our country moving. We should be able to put some of our parochial concerns aside and come together behind a comprehensive long-range infrastructure plan.”

Sweeney’s address capped off a daylong conference on “Infrastructure: A Pathway to Prosperity” at Sweeney’s alma mata, Iona College, in New Rochelle, N.Y. Yesterday’s conference brought together unions, business, government and academic leaders to explore the hows and whys of revitalizing the economy by rebuilding an aging and failing infrastructure.


The deadly I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota focused the nation’s attention on crumbling infrastructure.


Says Ron DeFeo, chairman and CEO of heavy equipment manufacturer Terex Corp., which sponsored the conference:

We know that investing in our own infrastructure will produce prosperity. It will save lives from better roadways. And it will put people to work who want to live in this country and prosper as my family has. But there has to be a will to do this. It is hard work to build consensus.

During last month’s debate on a short-term economic stimulus package, the AFL-CIO urged Congress to include a job-creating infrastructure component, one aimed at bridge repair and school renovation. Such a measure could jump-start the nation’s much-needed long-term economic revival. Says Sweeney:

Call it an economic downturn, call it a cooling off or call it a recession. But we are dealing with an economy that needs both short-term and long-term stimulus, and what Congress and the president have agreed upon so far is tens of billions of dollars short of what’s needed….We all know that infrastructure projects are the best way to create good jobs that stimulate the economy job and meet urgent needs at the same time.


FULL story at link.

[Hydra]

1. Imagine that- spend the money here!

Rather than in Iraq! Where did that idea come from???(do I need a :sarcasm: here?)