America’s freight delivery system is melting down and Congressional action on infrastructure is stalled. So what has Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg being doing about these problems?
Nothing, it turns out. For the past two months, he has been on paid leave due to having two new babies at home. The thing is, no one even noticed until Politico pointed it out last week. Now many people, particularly Republicans, are in a tizzy, wondering why Buttigieg should keep his job if he isn’t doing it.
Some are asking a more pertinent question, which is: why do we even have a Department of Transportation? Most of its budget, which was $87.5 billion in 2021 not counting various COVID relief funds, was simply passed through from the Treasury to the states according to formulas set by Congress. That could have been done by the Department of Commerce, which oversaw agencies such as the Bureau of Public Roads before the Department of Transportation was created.
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The biggest problem with having a federal Department of Transportation is that it has become a major source of pork barrel and government waste. As just one example, the DOT received a little more than $106 billion in COVID relief funds, which might have been useful if those funds were spent assisting the nation’s supply chains.
But they weren’t. Instead, $69 billion went to subsidize transit systems that hardly anyone is using while another $20 billion went to airports that few people are using and Amtrak got $1.6 billion to run empty trains. Highways received $10 billion but ports, where the impacts of supply-chain problems are most visible, got nothing. The money was spent to benefit powerful political constituencies, not to provide actual COVID relief where it is needed.
Most of DOT’s budget that isn’t wasted comes from users such as purchasers of airline tickets and motor vehicle fuels. Eliminating the Department of Transportation would cut out the middle man and allow the states to capture this money directly. If the Secretary of Transportation could disappear for two months before anyone noticed, maybe the Department of Transportation could disappear forever and no one would care.
Pete Butt-chug or whatever his name is; was secretly gone for months as our supply chain crashed
Joe Biden vacationed while Afghanistan fell
Kamala Harris flew to South America while the border collapsed
They promised the “adults were back in the room” under Biden. Turns out—they’re on vacation.
There was a time, almost 40 years ago, when SecDOTs were more interested in mobility and the people’s treasure than in debating the fine line between two months of vacation and two months of paternity leave.
Today, presidents appoint cabinet positions on the basis of diversity (in this case, the token homo) instead of qualifications.
DOT employees used to call themselves “Drew’s Drones” after Drew Lewis, Reagan’s SecDOT, said this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/03/09/who-needs-em/bc1ce1c9-2f61-490a-a706-b365c9da2270/
Two arguments for a US DOT are to coordinate standards and locations of highways and pay for them. But the Ohio and Pennsylvania turnpikes were built with money from bonds sold by the turnpike commissions, not the federal or state governments. Note that both were/are ultimately financed by tolls paid by users. And because these
highways are so popular with toll-paying users, turnpike bonds generally pay relatively small dividends.
To summarize, the turnpikes/toll roads are great for users and great for taxpayers.
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Pete Butt-chug or whatever his name is;
” ~ lazyreader
This sort of thing ain’t just pure cringe, that’s the sort of crap I’d expect from a 12 year old
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That could have been done by the Department of Commerce, which oversaw agencies such as the Bureau of Public Roads before the Department of Transportation was created.
” ~antiplanner
Can you imagine the heads that would explode if someone called on the US to have a Department of Bureau of Public Roads again? Love it.
Buttigieg as mayor of his democratic petri dish of South Bend. Where crime exploded and infrastructure ruined. If you’re mayor of a city your Salary is gonna be six digits… I’d buy a few bags of cement. And fill the potholes my self. Government likes things complicated, it makes competitive ventures go away. Then I’m reminded of the old saying “this better to ask for forgiveness than permission”.
Start a vigilante guerilla pothole repair league…. In this economy, with this administration…. Government is not coming to your rescue…..or your roads rescue
the only reason you need a federal agency… Standardization.
Interstate commerce requires a nation spanning rail and highway system that conforms to the same “lane width” sign postage, traffic signals, gauge, electric voltage; shit like that. All in all, federal govt doesn’t have to finance any or much of it’s construction.
Federal gas tax is 18.3 cents and 24 cents (diesel)
Federal fuel taxes raised $36.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2016, with $26.1 billion raised from gasoline taxes and $10.3 billion raised from taxes on diesel and special motor fuels. To my knowledge the tax was last raised in 1993 and is not indexed to inflation. So we’re paying for infrastructure on a finance rate, using money based on a dollar value from nearly 30 years ago.
Global gas taxes by nation (Tax: USD per gallon)
Australia: $1.17
Canada: 0.74
Denmark: 2.63
Germany: 2.79
Italy: 3.11
Sweden: 2.73
UK: 2.82
USA: 0.56
And we wonder why our infrastructure is shit….
Allow states to raise their gas taxes and cut federal gas tax a penny for each state raise. And as added measure raise it 2 cents for every 1 cent federal deduction. This would only increase gas taxes. Average US total above is 56 cents, meaning states make an average of 38 cents. Even after cutting federal gas tax in Half, with a 2 cent per capita raise; you could have a 30% increase in revenue at expense of no more than a added dime per gallon to consumer. State revenues often cover majority of run highways, tolls handle any discrepancies.
Regardless of which state depends more on federal funding, less federal input incentivizes highway rationalization, getting the feds out of it and inputing more state funds makes state highway departments more fiscally responsible…
Texas and California have by lane miles of highways
more than any state. All in all making states more responsible has several assets.
– Makes states reevaluate grandiose construction projects, Bostons “Big Dig” never would have been built without federal funding.
– Federal subsidies to highways is “Swing money” by picking a poverty case for tthe year they validate a sense of fiscal incompetence.
– Makes infrastructure responsible to users. But also makes user responsible to infrastructure.
”
Pete Butt-chug or whatever his name is;
” ~ lazyreader
This sort of thing ain’t just pure cringe, that’s the sort of crap I’d expect from a 12 year old