As Super Tuesday approaches, presidential hopefuls have been jetting in and out of southern California at a fevered pace. The operative term in that sentence is "jetting." None of them has to sit in So-Cal traffic. Likewise, no candidate has mustered the moxie to propose solutions to our nation's growing gridlock. "Los Angeles Times" reporter Steve Hymon takes an excellent look at this galling silence.
Ever since President Eisenhower signed into law the Interstate Highway system, the federal government has assumed a huge responsibility for building freeways and keeping them, well, free. But with the high costs of war and entitlement programs, it has been easier to shove responsibility to state governments, which then pass the buck to county and local officials. President Bush gleefully signed a $286-billion transportation bill in 2005. It was loaded with 6,300 "earmarks"--the very earmarks the president chided in his state of the union address last week, including $5.9 million for a Vermont snowmobile trail and $3 million for a documentary about Alaska infrastructure. In fact, Alaska was able to secure nearly $1 billion for 119 special projects.
And as for your grinding commute? That money has already been spent. And candidates on both sides of the fence know that it's safer to address health care, taxes--even the war in Iraq.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, the White House
