Cashing in on US distraction

Happily, objectives such as job creation and economic growth are shared across party lines, and spending on port facilities (such as the Nashville Avenue wharf, which Mr Obama toured) are part of that magic elixir. Think of flags and banners festooned on containers stacked up for maximum visual appeal in the background, and readers will get the picture.

Paradoxically, infrastructure could benefit from all the mis-steps on the centerpiece of the Obama administration: healthcare reform, and the heat that the President is generating as he explores deals in Iran and Afghanistan for example. Indeed, many local news outlets in the New Orleans area talked about the visit to the docks as providing a ‘distraction’ from everything else going on.

Obama said that infrastructure “shouldn’t be a Democratic or Republican issue”, and described such spending as “something that people across the political spectrum should be able to agree on”.

Two years ago, as partisan infighting in Washington was raging, a big Obama jobs bill (which contained provisions on transport spending) was shot down, due to a ‘filibuster’ in the Senate by the opposition party, the Republicans. Now, there are tiny currents of filibuster reform, as citizens express their disgust with a dysfunctional government.

So, for those politicians reading this article, just consider the importance of easy victories, however symbolic they may be. Of course, with Obama there’s lots of symbolism, as he noted: “Consider that just a couple years from now, we’re going to have new supertankers that are gonna’ start coming through the Panama Canal. And these tankers can hold three times as much cargo as today’s. If a port can’t handle those supertankers, they’ll go load and unload cargo somewhere else.”

Shortly after the Obama visit, Congress began discussions of the Water Resources Development Act, the $8.2bn bill that will benefit ports and inland waterways. So maybe things are getting better.

Call me a cynic, but if infrastructure victories – or wishful thinking about new quays, access roads and even containers piled high on the decks of ‘supertankers’ – succeed in getting the collective US consciousness away from the serious issues of the day, then let’s be distracted.