On the recordJuly 12, 2016
The poor condition of America's infrastructure costs our economy hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Freight bottlenecks, aviation congestion, inadequate ports, and deteriorating roads will cost 2.5 million American jobs over the next 10 years unless we address it. Meanwhile, interest rates are at a historic low. The yield on a 10- year Treasury bond is 1.4 percent. Indexed for inflation, the interest rate is negative. Observing this, Nobel Prize economist Paul Krugman wrote: ``They say that money talks; well, cheap money is speaking very clearly right now, and it's telling us to invest in our future,'' to nation-build in America. Increasing spending by $250 billion a year, the amount needed to bring our infrastructure to a state of good repair, would create 3 million jobs and would improve America's competitiveness in the long term. We should use today's record low rates to finance this inevitable spending. Refusing to do so makes no economic sense. I encourage this Congress to reconsider before this opportunity is lost. ____________________
