Did You Know?
We don't call that waste; we call it progress
It was only two short years ago that Bush Appointee, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, suggested on the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer that bicycling facilities were an example of inappropriate, non-transportation use of the federal gasoline tax. Today, Illinois residents can feel proud of current U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who is blogging about the relevance of bike facilities and defending the use of recovery dollars to build them. Bravo Secretary LaHood!
Coburn Report dismisses Recovery-supported bike paths
Should biking advocates be angry that Senator Tom Coburn included two bike paths in his latest list of stimulus waste? Or thrilled that the Senator singled them out?
As reported by The Washington Times, Coburn said, When we run $1.4 trillion deficits, the money we spend ought to be a high priority for the American people as a whole.
What he really means is that, because he doesn't get bikes, no one else does either.
…
As Liz Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for Vice President Biden put it:
The real question here is whether Recovery Act critics will at long last acknowledge that well over 99 percent of the projects are sound, effective and working as promised.
I couldn't agree more. We've worked hard this year to get our Recover Act dollars out to the states quickly and effectively. Yes, some of those projects include bike paths, a key ingredient in our livability initiative to allow people to live, work, and get around without a car.
We don't call that waste; we call it progress.
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