Report: Infrastructure Investment should be a Republican Priority
Republican Main Street Partnership, a centrist Republican organization released a report in June 2015 calling for infrastructure investment to become a republican issue. The report acknowledged that the US is currently not doing enough to improve its infrastructure. Ports are underdeveloped, highways are clogged, as is airspace. This is costing the American economy billions due inefficiency. The report noted:
“Road congestion costs us over $120 billion annually as well as nearly 3 billion gallons of wasted fuel. With 32 percent of roads in poor or mediocre condition taxpayers pay an average of $444 annually in additional vehicle repairs and operating costs. … Freight bottlenecks, according to the Federal Aviation Administration estimates that air traffic delays cost the economy $3.29 billion a year.”
According to the report, the National Association of Manufacturers estimate that US infrastructure can be brought up to minimum acceptable standards with an added annual expenditure of $125 billion. The report emphasized that while fiscal discipline is an important Republican staple, global competitiveness and national investment is also too a founding Republican belief. In fact the report states that the long term economic returns from infrastructure investment can far “significantly exceed their costs”
