The transportation fix

My mom, who I have a feeling deeply dislikes Sen. John McCain and his run for the Presidency, (although maybe the tides have turned a little with the addition of a woman as his VP) asked me to expand on my previous post about the Air Traffic System and what exactly McCain has said he would do to fix the issue. The answer is not easy, as I don't understand all of the workings of congress and allocated funds, but I will try to explain it as best as I can.

The Federal Transportation Commission released a report a couple months ago on the issues with all forms of transportation in the US, from the air to trains, to highways. The findings are that basically the country needs to invest $225 BILLION dollars A YEAR for the next 50 years to grow and fix all forms of transit. Sounds like a lot right, but if you look at the earmarks that Bush signed into effect for transportation, it totaled $284 billion and most of that skirted the true issues at hand.

McCain has pledged to:
#1: Get the spending under control
#2: Revise the priority with how money is spent on transportation.
#3: Allocate "priority funds" to ensure the pressing issues, such as the Air Traffic Control system is fixed.
#4: Tackle the transportation issue while focusing on lowering greenhouse gasses

Now, the Federal Commission also suggested to raise gas tax from $.05 cents a gallon to $.08 cents a gallon to aid funding. Not many people are going to get behind that, especially with the price of gasoline as it is (although it has fallen an average of $.40 cents a gallon over the past couple months!) So McCain has also pledged to not increase this gas tax.

That is the very basic of it all. One of the things McCain has suggested is an addition to the fees airlines already pay to land at airports, that will probably, if implemented, be passed on the passengers. But the fee, which would work out to an average additional $5 a ticket, would fix the system. I know most people would pay an additional $5 a ticket to avoid delays due to old equipment.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying McCain has all the answers, but what I am saying is that he is the ONE candidate that at least addresses the issue. Obama has skirted the issue many times. He has admitted that there are problems with transportation in America, but has not shown a interest in fixing it, much less actually laying out plans to do so.