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Transport experts weigh in
on Obama’s second term
Even if Democrats and Republicans can somehow manage
a “compromise,” President Obama still faces many
transportation-related challenges.
By John D. Schulz, Contributing Editor
WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Barack
Obama’s electoral college landslide victory
does not hide the fact that he still faces a
divided Congress as both parties work to
avert a pending fiscal nightmare scenario.
Even if Democrats and Republicans can
somehow mange to include the word “compromise”
in their lexicon, the president still
faces myriad problems in his second term
that will impact the transportation world.
So, what could shippers see coming
out of a second Obama administration?
Logistics Management scoured some of
the best minds in transportation to get
a few ideas of what might be coming
down the road.
The one thing that transportation
officials and executives throughout the
freight transport sector would like most
from the president’s second term would
be greater spending on the nation’s
infrastructure. However, the election
likely brought about changes in the
leadership of the House Transportation
& Infrastructure (T&I) Committee.
The current chairman, Rep. John Mica,
R-Fla., has hit his caucus term limit as
chairman.
That likely means that a most familiar
name will return as head of the T&I
Committee. The name is Shuster; but
instead of Bud Shuster, the retired
chairman who was a power in the T&I
Committee for decades, it’s his son Bill
Shuster, R-Pa., who is making a push
for the chairmanship.
The younger Shuster told
reporters on Nov. 8 that making
the financially strapped
Highway Trust Fund solvent
in the long term was a “priority,”
and also indicated that
everything was on the financial
table—including raising fuel
taxes.
The next few months,
which include a seven-week
lame duck session of the
“do-nothing 112th Congress,”
will likely see massive
attempts at horse-trading
with nearly everything on
the table, Shuster indicated.
“I believe there’s going to
be some large-scale negotiations taking
place, not only in the lame duck,
but then into the next year,” said Bill
Shuster.
While it’s debatable what can pass
through a new Congress that convenes
in January, the president often mentioned
rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure
during his campaign. When
on the stump, President Obama often
spoke that “it is time to do a little
nation-building at home.” That likely
could involve billions of dollars in transport
spending.
How soon that could happen is anyone’s
guess. The pending end-of-year
“fiscal cliff” could include trillions of
dollars in automatic tax increases for
many along with spending cuts. And
while many believe that those tax
increases could set the country on a
more responsible long-term fiscal program
that could allow for greater transport
spending, the risk is that those
increases could also blunt an already
shaky and inconsistent economic
recovery.
However, transportation experts
say that there are ways that a second
Obama administration can extract
maximum infrastructure benefits with
just some minor tweaks to the existing
revenue base. Respected transportation
analyst John Larkin, managing director
of transportation equity research
for Stifel Nicolaus, called on Obama
to push for a “significant” tax on fed-
10 LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT WWW.LOGISTICSMGMT.COM | December 2012