Following November’s “shellacking” at the polls, President Obama agreed that more fiscal restraint would be in order and submitted a 2012 budget proposal that pretends to meet that goal. That pretense, however, apparently doesn’t extend to Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, whose department is seeking an 84 percent increase in spending over 2010 levels. Jumping from $58 billion to $107 billion, transportation spending would grow more than 10 times faster than would all federal spending over the period.
Oddly, but not surprisingly, in the next fiscal year, 2013, total transportation spending would decline $30 billion to $77 billion, suggesting that this lopsided spending plan would be something of a political two-fer for Obama: an attempt to both validate his borrow-and-spend policies, and lavish money on supporters prior to the election.
