WBURKerry Pushes Infrastructure Spending During Boston Stop

BOSTON — Massachusetts’ senior senator, John Kerry, is trying to drum up support for establishing a national infrastructure bank for public works projects.

Kerry says projects like high-speed rail and other mass transit represent the effectiveness of taxpayer dollars working for the people. His “Build Act” would create a financing authority that would provide loans and loan guarantees to infrastructure projects.

Kerry acknowledges it’s important to reduce the deficit and debt, but “right now, we can balance the budget and we can get control of the deficit without turning our back on the investments that create jobs and improve the quality of life for our citizens,” Kerry said at South Station Friday.

Kerry says China is spending 9 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on infrastructure and Europe is spending 5 percent. Here in the U.S. that figure is lower than 2 percent.

WBUR Topics · Boston · Economy & Business · Politics
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  • Anonymous

    Someone’s been watching “Inspector America” on the history channel…. The amount of money the U.S spends on it’s failing infrastructure is PATHETIC. America’s infrastructure is pathetic, NONE of it was designed to last, pipes, sewers, streets, bridges, buildings that were construced 100 and even 50 years ago are CRUMBLING UNDER OUR FEET! We have more than 72,000 bridges in this Nation that have been deemed “structurally deficient” – that’s 12% of ALL BRIDGES. And almost 90,000 bridges (14% of ALL bridges) which have been deemed functionally obsolete…. MANY of these bridges are still in use….

    -http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/ 

    As Europe and China expand their use of green energy and green, long lasting infrastructure many in the U.S Congress as dead set on choking this Country to death with big oil and energy conglomerates holding onto our backs as we fall face first to the ground, watching China sprints ahead of us. 

    While the GOP tries to cut green jobs and green energy investments (OUR FUTURE) they want to maintain the status quo for these oil companies that compared to their research and investment in dirty energy spend NOTHING, and contribute NOTHING to move this Country away from oil and coal and towards the energy that will dominate the future.

    Thank you Sen. Kerry for reminding us that our crumbling infrastructure is just as dangerous to our National security as foreign oil imports, terrorism, and another economic collapse.

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