department of transportation

Anonymous sources have Anthony Foxx being chosen to be the replacement for current Secretary Ray LaHood; I don’t particularly expect much from Foxx, but then I didn’t particularly expect much from LaHood, either, which makes it all good. Foxx, for those who don’t remember, is the first-and-won’t-seek-a-second-term Mayor of Charlotte, NC; he’s apparently being ‘rewarded’ for the his work in hosting the 2012 Democratic convention that flipped the state back to full Republican control. Note the use of scare quotes; I’m not exactly sure how this is a step up.

As to Mayor Foxx’s specific qualifications, CNN is remarkably forthright in describing what it clearly considers to be the primary one: Continue reading CNN: Anthony Foxx to be next Secretary of Transportation.

…in the hopes of finding $556,000,000,000 under it the next day.

No, it’s a legitimate analogy. The National Journal has looked over the President’s proposed transportation bill (public link), and noted this (subscription only):

Obama wants $53 billion over six years for a high-speed rail program, $8 billion in fiscal year 2012, and he wants $50 billion this year to jump-start large infrastructure projects. The administration is proposing $336 billion over six years for roads and bridges, a 48 percent increase from the previous authorization. It wants $30 billion for an “infrastructure bank” to select and fund large projects on a competitive basis.

Where does the money come from? [Transportation Secretary Ray] LaHood deflected that query. “We’ll work with Congress on this, on the pay-for,” he said.

In other words, they don’t know where the money will come from. Continue reading Obama leaves unfunded transportation mandate under pillow…