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The Public Policy
Road Runners
Republicans should seize the high ground on the infrastructure issue.
Who should build and fix the nation’s roads? The Democrats clearly believe road building and repair is best done by the federal government. President Obama, in fact, made infrastructure improvements a major part of his $787 billion stimulus package. And in the New Hampshire debate on Saturday night, the Republicans sadly seemed to look to Washington as well.
When asked during the debate about the federal government’s role in improving the nation’s roads, Newt Gingrich seemed resigned to a strong federal role. So did Mitt Romney, although he also seemed open to state efforts. According to Romney, “There are certain things government can do to grow the economy. Rebuilding infrastructure that is aging is one of them.” He went on to describe bridges and highways that needed repair.
These Republicans are right in pointing to a strong infrastructure as being essential to economic growth. But “Let Washington do it” should not be our battle cry. If we look first to the Constitution, and second to competency, we will discover that we should ask Washington to hit the road, not build it.
First, the Constitution leaves road building as a state and local function. In 1817, when Congress passed a bill allowing the federal government to build roads and canals in various states, President James Madison vetoed it. “I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution,” Madison said. As a result of that veto, the state of New York built the very successful Erie Canal, and other states (and various entrepreneurs) built most of the rest of the nation’s roads very capably in the 1800s.
When the nation veered from this course of state and private building, problems resulted. The feds were incompetent. For example, after the Civil War the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads went from Omaha to Sacramento, and were heavily subsidized by Washington. Both went bankrupt (the Union Pacific several times). So did the Northern Pacific Railroad, which also had federal help. But the Great Northern Railroad, built by James J. Hill from St. Paul to Seattle, took no federal aid and never went bankrupt. In fact, it was the best built transcontinental and had the best rails and most even grade all across the country. Thus, federal aid to roads was not a stimulus to railroad growth, but an impediment instead.
Even in the 20th century, federal aid to infrastructure created huge problems. FDR used his WPA program under the New Deal to build roads primarily in states he needed to carry at election time. Later, President Eisenhower started the interstate highway system, and much of that was well done, but instead of cutting unemployment, the U.S. went into debt and recession in 1958. The states might have done the job much better, and in a more constitutional way.
If states today (or maybe even private companies) built the highways, the politicians would have strong incentives to build carefully and cheaply. Senators, like the late Robert Byrd, would no longer be able to seize extra federal cash for their states. Thus, the states, instead of looking to Washington, could work together to build interstate highways and major bridges. Finally, with less power in Washington, we would have a smaller Department of Transportation at the capital, and less federal debt to lay on our children and grandchildren.
Those are the arguments Republicans need to make. The Democrats would have no response — President Obama last year defended federal projects by citing the “intercontinental railroad,” apparently confusing it with the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad — which, as we mentioned, took federal aid and went bankrupt.
Just because something needs to be done, doesn’t mean the federal government ought to do it and can do it best.
About the Author
Burton Folsom, Jr. is professor of history at Hillsdale College and author of New Deal or Raw Deal? (Simon & Schuster, 2008). His latest book, co-authored with Anita Folsom, is FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America (Simon & Schuster, 2011).
About the Author
Anita Folsom works at Hillsdale College and is co-author of FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America (Simon & Schuster, 2011).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
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Pecos Pete| 1.9.12 @ 6:18AM
The federal government under King O will collapse the economy. Shovel ready infrastructure jobs will not happen ... think Keystone Pipeline.
TrueBlue | 1.10.12 @ 10:49AM
Keystone isn't shovel ready because it wasn't Obama's idea.
JP| 1.9.12 @ 7:31AM
If one adds up the money allocated in the then record 2005 Transportation Bill ($500 billion) to the $800 billion Stimulus, as well as various other "infrastructure" riders Congress appropriated the last decade (remember President Bush's $100 billion allocation to post-Katrina New Orleans?), Congress has spent close to $2 trillion on "roads, bridges, railroads, harbors, etc...". Money isn't the problem.
Indy| 1.9.12 @ 7:55AM
Agreed, the way the Dems and the media talk about this issue, you would think bridges are collapsing daily. We don't need nor can we afford high speed rail, stick a fork in that thought we are broke but can the cocktail party craft that simple message....no.
MAC| 1.9.12 @ 10:08AM
It is about time we hear arguements for the states role versus the federal role. the American people believe that the federal government has grown too large. Let's give them a better alternative.
richard ryan| 1.9.12 @ 10:14AM
"Shovel ready" is a joke and Obama knows it. The reason nothing is shovel ready in 2012 is precisely because of governmental roadblocks. Regulatory burden and environmental impact nonsense has prevented shovelers from working. Yes, private industry would prove to be much more efficient and would do a better job than the government. But first weneed to release the red tape and regulations. If common sense ruled, private industry would purchase and run our airports also. With the exception of the DOD, private industry could do everything better than the government. Selling airports and other government controlled assets could also raise a bit of revenue for Uncle Sam.
Derek Leaberry| 1.9.12 @ 10:27AM
The Interstate Highway System should have been disbanded thirty years ago. However, like most federal programs, the purpose of the IHS was expanded to fit the needs of the bureaucracy and the politicians. Although Eisenhower's original purpose of the program was to link bigger cities with one another, the IHS now serves to chew up rural land so a small amount of speculators and developers can become rich spoiling the land. The Interstate Highway System has become an anti-conservative entity.
Pete| 1.9.12 @ 11:15AM
Wasn't the stimulus over 2 trillion? Certainly the dems never cut the budget from 2009 to 2010 and it was not cut in 2011. So it seems to me the stimulus has multiplied.
Pete| 1.9.12 @ 11:16AM
I imagine Ron Paul would sell off all the roads and have private companies set up toll roads. Why would states do such a great job with roads?
richard ryan| 1.9.12 @ 3:14PM
even toll roads that cost a bunch to travel would be popular in some areas. Let me pay for less traffic and reliable travel, I'd do anything to avoid airports and traffic back ups
SCPOret| 1.9.12 @ 12:41PM
Maybe we should take a look at not only who should take care of the infrastructure but how those dollars have been used. How many states took funds to maintain roads and bridges only to divert those funds to build bike paths and walking paths. Nothing wrong with bike paths but obviously not the best use of funds for roads and bridges.
Moe Blotz| 1.9.12 @ 1:29PM
Sometime between 1958 and 2012 congress mandated that 10% of all federal highway taxes be siphoned off to be used on bike paths and mass transit. I use highways to earn a living and pay anywhere from 6 cents per mile to 11 cents per mile, not including toll roads and depending on the state. You want a bike path? Tell the bikests (bikers ride motorcycles) to pay.
Bill Kelly| 1.9.12 @ 12:53PM
If the feds are responsible for roads and bridges, may I please have all of the gasoline taxes I paid in California these past 30 years?
Moe Blotz| 1.9.12 @ 1:32PM
Your highways are funded by a combination of state and federal fuel taxes.
JeffB| 1.9.12 @ 3:35PM
Acutally, they steal that money for other things.
The roads in much of CA are in horrible shape and there certainly are not any new freeways.
Kurt| 1.10.12 @ 2:41PM
I recall gas prices at less than 25 cents per gallon. Now taxes are about 50 cents per gallon. these taxes were justified by politicians as funding to maintain raods and bridges by those who use them (so we should not have tolls either...) If they used these taxes properly the roads should be in stellar condition without additional taxation!
Elias| 1.9.12 @ 3:47PM
I'm reminded of watching Ronald Reagan on the tube, I think it was 1987. Reagan had just vetoed the Highway Bill. Local news anchors on two of the then big-three networks reported the "x" millions of dollars that the bill would have brought to our local economy. I switched to the CBS channel. Rather than report how much money the local economy "lost" due to Reagan's veto, the CBS affiliate showed a news reel of Reagan at a press conference, with Reagan saying, "I vetoed this bill because it is the worst example of pork barrel spending I have ever seen.." as he hefted the 4 inch thick Highway Bill into the air. One of those "Ah-ha!" moments where we citizens learn how the mainstream media lies to us, and a lesson or two about our institutionally corrupt Congress. Makes Rick Perry's proposal of a part-time Congress with no lavish pension benefits sound pretty good.
SteveR| 1.9.12 @ 5:36PM
Makes perfect sense... therefore the feds will never go for it!
POST American| 1.9.12 @ 11:01PM
---Fascinating that, as roads and bridges
crumble, in anticipation of the Agenda 21
(ie 'Smart Future') ---there seems to be no
end of money for four storey high traffic
fences that run for miles, 'Smart meters'
for data collection, surveillance cameras
and eavesdropping devices ----and ever
more wiring and microwave saturation.
--------------------Nuremberg 2012---------------------
NOW, the only question seems to be
whether it will be 1934? ---or 1945?
---------------------------TIME TO MOVE KIDDIES
JayDick| 1.10.12 @ 6:36AM
Fed involvement carries all kinds of requirements that makes roadbuilding more expensive; thus we get less for our money. For interstate type roads, privately run toll roads is the way to go. With automation, the cost of collecting tolls has fallen dramatically.
TrueBlue | 1.10.12 @ 10:58AM
The Senate hasn't passed a budget bill since the Dems took over in 2007. The House has passed several since the Repubs got back in in 2009 (maybe not perfect, but at least they passed them), they got tabled in the Senate, and were reduced to making those bull$%^& "continuing resolutions" so the government could continue working. I'd have preferred they just shut it down instead of not doing their jobs while we get stuck paying them anyway.
Frank Natoli| 1.10.12 @ 2:00PM
Build and fix roads? Big city subway systems were built over a century ago. Interstate highway system was built decades ago. Last man on the moon was almost forty years ago. We can't do any of that anymore, not because the engineering is dead. It's because there's a national paralysis caused by the litigate-every-construction-plan-to-death crowd. On my drive to my principal customer, I can identify a half dozen choke points that would really benefit from one more lane in each direction, but there's zero chance of that happening, because misery in your car on the road is the bitter medicine of the Left, to compel us to some other fantasy travel solution. Pathetic!
MXLord327| 1.10.12 @ 2:50PM
Federal highway/infrastructure projects are nothing but a cronyist transfer of wealth to big unions.
POST American| 1.10.12 @ 10:19PM
---AND all this as the U.S. taxpayer
continues to underwrite the transfer
of his economy to Globalist RED China
--and build bridges --infra-structure and
hospitals ----OVER THERE.
"The Federal Reserve has put
so many BILLIONS in {--NAZI--}
Germany that they dare NOT name
the TOTAL."
-Rep. Charles McFadden
(1935)
What it is folks!
----------------------WHAT IT IS------------------------
--------------------TIME TO MOVE---------------------