Saturday, November 21, 2009

Planning for the future?

Alan Pisarski testified to a House sub-committee hearing on the reauthorization of the omnibus transportation bill. Among other things, he said this:

Design the transportation system of the future that will serve the needs of a population with a value of time double of that of today’s average traveler (say $50 an hour in current dollars) and serving an economy with an average value of goods moved double present average values per ton.

Good idea. But will they hear? Here is what Ron Utt says they are really up to. More backward-looking than forward-looking. And more wishful thinking than analysis or common sense.

Our leaders are running up record deficits and some economists are cheering them on. But aside from the raw deficit numbers, just look at where the money is going. I often hear that there is even more waste in the Department of Defense. That may be true, but the two-wrongs-make-a-right defense is pretty feeble.