Snap-O Fact #94

During his 2008 Presidential campaign, candidate Obama laid out a bold plan for repairing and modernizing America's infrastructure. President Bush was the first president since Herbert Hoover to not make infrastructure a priority during the 8 years of his administration. Not only had we fallen behind many other countries in this regard, but our facilities had become the victim of neglect. President Obama's envisioned plan would not only bring our country back to having the best communications and transportation systems in the world, it would also employ great numbers of workers in the process. The relentless opposition to this 2008 plan was unpredictable at the time. The President believed that such an obviously beneficial program was sure to find support from every patriotic American. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. Conservative legislators, broadcasters, and decision makers 

immediately erected an impenetrable wall to block all initiatives to infrastructure improvement. The President’s was able to get an infrastructure spending plan in 2009 that granted $100 billion. This amount was used to improve infrastructure and, at the same time, to increase jobs in the United States. 

The President never gave up his vision to get a modern and useful bill from Congress. Finally, in September 2011, President Obama’s proposed to spend another $140 billion on infrastructure such as roads, bridges, power plants, etc. He successfully began to gain a lot of support from businessmen, legislators, governors, and even a couple of Republicans. This new proposal is inspired by the President’s previous infrastructure spending plan in 2009. Unlike President Bush who did not make infrastructure one of the priorities, President Obama is keeping his promise, made during the 2008 Presidential campaign, to support American infrastructure development.