Brent Spence Bridge



President Obama will promote his jobs bill at a bridge important to House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) district next week, the White House announced Thursday. The White House said that Obama would visit the Brent Spence Bridge in Ohio on Sept. 22 in order to highlight the “urgent need” for infrastructure improvements, one of the ideas included in his bill.

And aside from putting Boehner's obstructionism in the spotlight, why visit the bridge?

The 48-year-old bridge, which spans the Ohio River between Ohio and Kentucky, has been under review by transportation officials in the two states for massive repair or replacement. The double-decker inter-state bridge has been described as “functionally obsolete.” Obama also used the bridge as an example of necessary infrastructure repair in his jobs speech to Congress, prompting both Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to respond that while the bridge is an important priority for their constituents, they would not support funding repairs through earmarks or another stimulus.

The American Jobs Act would provide $50 billion for these kinds of infrastructure investments, but even though Boehner and McConnell agree that projects like these are urgently needed, they refuse to support the legislation that would actually fund them. The thing they either don't understand or won't admit is that putting off these kinds of infrastructure improvements will ultimately add more to our debt than dealing with them now.

At some point, bridges like this are going to need repair, so the money is going to be spent one way or another. Better to do it early in the game than when it's too late because the bridge needs to be shut down (or even worse, when it collapses).

And the best thing about dealing with them now is that we'd put people back to work and grow the economy. The fact that putting people back to work and growing the economy is also the best way to reduce the deficit is just icing on the cake.