May 19, 2015
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)
Former New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg criticized both Democrats and Republicans for failing to
boost the nation’s infrastructure.
“No issue that I think can better exemplify the lack of
investment in transportation,” Bloomberg said. “It shouldn’t take a tragic
Amtrak accident to put infrastructure at the top of the agenda, and yet, even
that didn’t do it.”
‘Over the past 15 years, under both Democratic and
Republican Congresses and both Democratic and Republican presidencies,
Washington has consistently given us the worst of both worlds.’ Michael
Bloomberg
The fatal train crash in Philadelphia proved the need to
upgrade the nation’s transportation system, he said.
“Over the past 15
years, under both Democratic and Republican Congresses and both Democratic and
Republican presidencies, Washington has consistently given us the worst of both
worlds,” said the founder and CEO of Bloomberg LP, speaking at the 2015 Fiscal
Summit. He lamented both the lack of entitlement reform as well as the lack of
investment.
Addressing the strained Highway Trust Fund, Bloomberg said
the three scariest words in Washington are “tax, gas and increase.”
The federal government raises highway funding through the
Highway Trust Fund, the repository for money from gasoline and diesel-fuel
taxes. However, the gasoline tax and the diesel tax haven’t been increased on
the federal level since 1993.
The use of more fuel-efficient cars also pinches the money
raised from the fund.
Bloomberg said President Barack Obama deserves a credit for
“putting forward an ambitious infrastructure plan.” He referred to the
administration’s six-year Grow America Act plan that would raise infrastructure
funding by increasing the repatriation tax raised from among overseas American
companies. “But this ought to be a bipartisan issue,” Bloomberg said. “Congress
is doing what it does best: the bare minimum, kicking the can down the
pothole-filled road.”
Bloomberg said he was cynical due to his political
experience. The only way to get the attention of elected officials is either by
helping them keep their jobs or kicking them out.
“Every time you are stuck in traffic, call your senator and
a member of Congress, and tell them they are costing you money and ruining your
lifestyle,” he suggested.