The Indiana Department of Transportation issued a press release on the National Convoy’s trip across the United States to commemmorate Dwight D. Eisenhower’s historic 1919 trip across the country when he was a Lt. Colonel. The trip was historic because it was then he had a vision of what would become the Interstate Highway System.
The Indiana Dept. of Transportation annoyingly links this event with the Governor’s highway privatization plan which he calls Major Moves.
The press release states:
June 29, 1956 marks the day federal law brought America its unparalleled Interstate Highway System. Since that time the system has transformed our nation and economy. To this day the Interstate System remains one of the greatest public-works projects in history.
That’s accurate. What did the Interstate Highway System do? With tax dollars, it built a network of high quality roads available mostly for free to citizens. The roads contributed to an explosion in the economy that has more than made up for the tax dollars spent building those roads. That doesn’t sound at all like “Major Moves” to me.
Llamajockey and others around here have made the point that perhaps roads aren’t the best transportation tool available to us anymore given the increasing scarcity of oil and the diminishing returns of adding new roads to the existing ones. But still, to me the lesson of the Interstate Highway System is that government can use taxes to benefit society by building infrastructure that is accessible to all citizens.
We Peak Oil moonbats like to point out that the very week Eisenhower proposed the Interstate Highway act, Hubbert accurately predicted that domestic US oil production would peak in 15 years and world oil production with in 50-55 years. And yes I believe we would be vastly better off today if we had never abandon long distant and light rail as our primary means of inter urban and urban mass transit instead of embracing Detroit and Big Oil.
Still Doug, you are right. Eisenhower was a different kind of Republican. A Republican unafraid of proposing using taxes to finance the construction of Public goods for the benefit of future generations and as an engine of economic growth.