ARIZONA SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN is among the most vociferous critics of the Bush administration’s inability to rein-in nondefense spending. He recently encouraged the administration to veto the Senate’s proposed six-year, $318 billion highway reauthorization bill. McCain, one of only twenty-one senators to vote against the reauthorization, has challenged the administration to make good on its threat, asserting that “Presidents who make veto threats and don’t fulfill them quickly become irrelevant.” With the federal budget deficit at $521 billion and counting, President Bush will face a great deal of pressure to make some kind of grand gesture of financial restraint to shore-up his fiscally conservative right-flank. But when it comes to the highway bill, President Bush should resist such pressure. As any commuter on the East or West coast can tell you, America’s transportation infrastructure is horribly outdated. The Eisenhower Interstate highway system, which makes up the core of America’s surface infrastructure, was conceived nearly 50 years ago, at a cost of $22.5 billion. In its time, the system was a marvel. But, according to the Department of Transportation, a full 32 percent of major American roads are now in poor or mediocre condition. What’s more, 29 percent of bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Congestion costs the nation about $67 billion a year. Americans waste 3.6 billion hours and 5.7 billion gallons of gas sitting in traffic–all at an average cost of $1,160 per commuter per year.
Bush shouldn’t veto the highway bill just because Americans waste time and money on crowded roads: More than 42,000 people die each year on American roads, and nearly one-third of these deaths can be directly attributed to substandard road conditions and roadside hazards. So while support for a major highway bill may come from the most selfish of motives, a massive increase in spending on infrastructure would also save lives.
