Republicans don't want to talk about transportation and infrastructure #p2 #tcot @gop @speakerboehner

Transportation funding matters.
(Kevin Rofidal/United States Coast Guard)

Republican presidential candidates face a bit of a conundrum about transportation and infrastructure funding: We need to have ways to get from place to place that don't involve bridges falling out from under us, and making roads and trains and bridges work as they should creates jobs. But—and this is a big but—the governmentfunds transportation and infrastructure, so while that funding might create jobs and build and maintain stuff we all use, it's a bad bad thing. Also, too, Obama wants to fund transportation.

As a result, the Republican candidates may not be quite sure what they're supposed to say. Especially since it it turns out that most of them have skeletons in their closets: Earlier in his time as Texas governor, Rick Perry supported the Trans-Texas Corridor, which was a boogeyman to some under the name "NAFTA Superhighway." As Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney "encouraged building housing around rail stations, a 'smart growth' position typically championed by left-leaning groups, and employed a 'fix-it-first' philosophy toward infrastructure." Michele Bachmann wouldn't shy away from a chance at earmarks for her district (she just wouldn't call them earmarks). Newt Gingrich advocated Chinese-style giant transportation projects. As a senator back when Republicans supported infrastructure funding, Rick Santorum voted repeatedly for transportation bills. Basically, only Ron Paul has been consistent in crazed opposition to the government keeping us from falling into rivers or out of the sky.

rest at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/03/1051071/-Republicans-dont-want-to-talk-about-transportation-and-infrastructure?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29