Bailout Bandwagon - The Rendell Plan - Commonwealth Foundation

As hope for the proposed Turnpike Lease dwindles, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is asking Congress to add $100 billion in transportation money to the $700 billion bailout deal.

The Democrat said his infrastructure initiative would help recharge the American economy by improving public facilities and creating nearly 5 million good-paying jobs.

The Heritage Foundation strongly disagrees:

Ronald Utt points out, “the vast majority of independent academic and federal government studies on the relationship between infrastructure spending and economic activity have found that the impact is very modest and long in coming.” Highway spending simply transfers jobs from one part of the economy to the other. This plan hardly stimulates the economy.

When will they learn that governments redistribute wealth but private business actually create wealth. For more on why governments should partner with private businesses click here.

Nate Benefield adds:

Members of Congress might want to note that tacking on a laundry list of other proposals to “must-pass” legislation (e.g. the state budget), is Rendell’s go to play. It also explains why the state budget has never passed on time under Rendell’s tenure. That is to say, it’s a dumb idea.