Obama infrastructure idea divides 5th District foes

U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, offered tentative support Tuesday for President Barack Obama’s call for $50 billion in new infrastructure spending, but stopped short of endorsing the proposal outright because he has not yet seen details.

“I’ve obviously got to see the details and see how it’s paid for, but I believe infrastructure [spending] is one of the things we should be doing. I’ve fought for that for a year and a half,” Perriello said, speaking before a town hall meeting at Charlottesville High School.

Perriello’s conceptual support of Obama’s proposal puts him at odds with his two challengers, GOP nominee Robert Hurt and independent Jeffrey A. Clark.

Perriello said he wanted far more infrastructure spending in the original $787 billion stimulus act approved by Congress early last year. Investing in infrastructure such as transportation, he said, can put America on a more economically competitive footing.

“I certainly know in Virginia that our business competitiveness will be determined in part by our transportation infrastructure and the efficiencies that come from that,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of job losses in the construction sector and the asphalt sector. So I think construction and infrastructure is one of the smart things for us to be doing.”

Obama is expected to outline more details about his plan to boost infrastructure spending, as well as other steps aimed at stimulating the nation’s struggling economy, in a speech today in Cleveland. The measures require approval by Congress, which reconvenes in mid-September ahead of the Nov. 2 mid-term elections.

Hurt, a state senator from Chatham, said he is solidly against the idea of more federal government spending on infrastructure projects as a means to improve the economy.

“I oppose the new $50 billion stimulus plan that raises taxes, continues to put our nation on a path of reckless government spending, and fails to create the sustainable private sector jobs that we need to get our economy back on track. Enough is enough,” Hurt wrote in an e-mail to The Daily Progress. “We can no longer sit idly by as the federal government spends money we don’t have and leaves future generations to foot the bill.”

Hurt has said that he believes the private sector and the free market, as opposed to the government, is the key to creating long-lasting jobs. The $787 billion economic stimulus passed by Congress early last year, he has said, failed to stem the nation’s rising unemployment rate and added an unsustainable amount of debt.

Clark, a Tea Party member from Danville, said he acknowledges that new investment in the nation’s roads and other infrastructure could put some people back to work, but he doubts it would do much to improve the nation’s unemployment rate.

Clark is concerned, he said, that Obama’s plan would add even more onto the nation’s $13 trillion debt.

“Who’s going to pick up the cost here?” Clark said. “Also, is this [infrastructure spending] some way to pay off Big Labor? That needs to be looked at.”

At Perriello’s town hall forum Tuesday, Jefferson Area Tea Party Chairwoman Carole Thorpe questioned Perriello about Obama’s new economic proposal.

“Our president is prepared to jack up our kids for another $50 billion,” she said.

Thorpe, who said she is concerned about the federal debt, pointed out that some $275 billion from the first stimulus act remains unspent. Plus, she added, Congress approved earlier this month another $26 billion stimulus measure.

Perriello said much of the remaining stimulus funds are obligated for projects, such as a bridge project in Danville that is under construction but continues to receive stimulus funding.

The $26 billion measure, he said, aims to help states fund Medicaid and prevent the layoff of 100,000 teachers nationally, 439 of whom work at schools in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District.

That measure, Perriello said, does not add money to the federal debt. It is paid for by reducing spending on food stamps and by closing a tax loophole that he says encourages companies to ship jobs overseas.

The new proposal to ramp up spending on infrastructure projects, Perriello said, could bring much-needed money to pay for transportation improvements in places such as Charlottesville and could modernize the nation’s aging electric grid.

“There’s a difference between spending money and investing money,” Perriello said. “Transportation has been an investment.”