Meet the New Secretary of Transportation

In what may turn out to be his least controversial cabinet nomination, President-elect Trump has picked Elaine Chao as Secretary of Transportation. Chao was previously Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush and Deputy Secretary of Transportation under George H.W. Bush. She has also served as director of the Peace Corps and worked as a distinguished fellow for the Heritage Foundation.

Chao was born in Taiwan and when she was 8 years old her family emigrated to the United States, where her father ended up founding a major shipping company that owns a fleet of at least fifteen ships. She earned a degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College in 1975 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979.

For cialis generic pharmacy this reason, they are used in the formulation of the oil are extremely helpful for reproductive organs. The discount web chemists give is actually their profit that they share viagra without prescription with the end users. Under this condition, a man is unable generic levitra online to erect his penile organ even after proper sexual stimulation. If you are experiencing Erectile Dysfunction, cialis generic uk pharma-bi.com you are bound to feel nervous and anxious. Chao is clearly an intelligent and talented woman. No doubt spurred by her father’s career, she gained her first important government job as deputy administrator of Maritime Administration in the Department of Transportation just seven years after receiving her MBA. Two years later, she became chair of the Federal Maritime Commission, and Deputy Transportation Secretary a year after that.

As Deputy Secretary of Transportation, she won respect from the rail industry, and it is worth noting that high-speed rail advocates think Trump supports their boondoggles. She was also known to say that the United States doesn’t need many more highways, which isn’t necessarily wrong but doesn’t automatically mean we should boost spending on obsolete forms of transportation.

Much of the Interstate Highway System is at the end of its service life. Washington Metro recently announced it will need $25 billion in “capital needs” (maintenance) over the next ten years to keep its system operating. No doubt the New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston transit systems have similar needs.

Trump and Chao will have to decide if America should rebuild its existing infrastructure or let that infrastructure fall apart as it builds brand-new infrastructure that it won’t be able to afford to maintain. Even with the tax breaks proposed in Trump’s infrastructure plan, the country won’t be able to do both.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

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