Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008 - (Page 14)

b A s the race for U.S. president enters the home stretch, the debate continues among engineering professionals regarding which major-party nominee—Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama—would be best for the industry. Most already know where Sens. McCain and Obama stand on many of the hot-button issues—the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism and health care. But what about issues pertaining to the engineering industry, such as transportation, energy, the environment and taxes? “The candidates are expected to remain true to their party colors,” says FOX News political analyst Morton Kondracke. “For all their promises to work across party lines and seek bipartisan consensus solutions to America’s problems, Barack Obama and John McCain have laid down economic platforms that are classic reflections of their parties’ ideologies.” Kondracke, who will be a featured speaker at the upcoming ACEC Fall Conference in Montréal, Oct. 19–22, adds: “Obama, whose voting record is the most liberal in the Senate, wants to expand government intervention and investment, raise taxes on upper-income individuals and businesses and redistribute income down the economic scale. “McCain, once a maverick, now favors retaining all of President Bush’s tax cuts and lowering the corporate rate, arguing it’s the best way to create jobs. He wants to reduce domestic spending and proposes free market reforms for health care. “Whoever is elected will have a hard time ending the partisan polarization that keeps Washington gridlocked,” Kondracke says. An in-depth examination of the candidates’ speeches and websites, as well as what is said about them by business and industry leaders, sheds light on their views on issues relevant to the engineering industry. arack obama and John mcCain have laid down economic platforms that are classic reflections of their parties’ ideologies. morton KonDracKe FoX newS loans are repaid, the money goes back into this bank for future projects. McCain has yet to offer a formal proposal on national infrastructure repair and improvement. He has come out against federal earmarks—the insertion of local pet projects into legislation—and has called for line-item veto authority over any bill he deems potentially wasteful. McCain was one of four senators who voted against final passage of the Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Act—A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which provides funding for highway projects. The move, prompted by McCain’s concerns over earmarks in the bill, drew mixed reviews from the industry. “While we don’t think earmarks are necessarily a great idea and there have certainly been abuses of earmarks…we think earmarking has its place,” says Cathy Connor, senior vice president and manager of government affairs at PB (formerly transportation Infrastructure Obama has said that strengthening the nation’s transportation systems, including roads and bridges, is a top priority. “Too many of our nation’s railways, highways, bridges, airports and neighborhood streets are slowly decaying due to lack of investment and strategic long-term planning,” asserts Obama in campaign literature. “America’s long-term competitiveness depends on the stability of our critical infrastructure.” Obama has proposed a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that would make $60 billion available for infrastructure projects over 10 years in addition to annual Highway Trust Fund appropriations. The bank would provide lines of credit or loan guarantees to states for projects. When those 14 ENGINEERING INC. sEptEmbER / oCtobER 2008 JacK Guez-Pool/Getty ImaGeS

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Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008 Contents From ACEC to You News & Notes Market Watch Legislative Action Decision '08 Managing Risk in a Multidiscipline World Healthy Designs Taking the Next Step Business Insights 2008 Fall Conference Primer Members in the News One On One

Engineering Inc. - September/October 2008

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