Jim Oberstar: Blaming and taxing? Let's check reality

Conservative radio talk show host Jason Lewis is in the business of hyperbole. He is making a good living putting anecdote over analysis and making outrageous statements that get the blood of his listeners boiling. That was pretty evident when he took on the issue of repairing our nation's bridges in his Oct. 22 opinion piece "Pointing fingers and clawing at our wallets."

Lewis contends that I am ruthlessly using the tragedy of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse to raise the gas tax. He also accuses me of being -- try not to be too shocked -- a supporter of public transportation. Finally, Lewis implies the nation's transportation system is being neglected by members of Congress responding to the needs of their own districts, directing funding to projects that are important to the communities they represent.

Unfortunately, Lewis' ability to rant is not matched by his skill at math. Let's look at the real numbers making an impact on our nation's transportation system:

The biggest number is $84 billion. That is the difference between the $370 billion that the Bush administration's own Transportation Department said would be needed over a six-year period to keep pace with congestion and the $286 billion that was finally passed after a year of negotiations with the White House.

Claims that members of Congress are spending too much transportation money responding to the needs of their own districts are also unrelated to the actual numbers. In the last federal highway bill, $24 billion, or 8 percent, of the total funding went to fund members' high priority projects.

Lewis and others also claim that bicycle and walking paths are leeching funds away from the maintenance of our roads and bridges. But concentrating on math instead of political rhetoric reveals that only 4 percent of all members' high-priority projects went to bicycle and footpaths nationwide in the last federal highway bill. That's 4 percent of 8 percent, or .0032 of the total amount of the bill. It is barely enough to replace two structurally deficient bridges like the I-35W bridge. After that there would be 73,782 bridges left to deal with.

It is unfathomable to me that Lewis and others could look at the tragedy of the bridge collapse and not be moved to act decisively. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, it will take $188 billion to fix all of the nation's structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges.

My national bridge initiative makes a good start on resolving this problem. It would raise $25 billion over three years. Drivers would pay an additional 5 cents a gallon (not the 23.5 cents that Lewis suggests) at the gas pump, to go into a special bridge trust fund. This money could only be spent on inspecting and repairing bridges, and it would be distributed based on public-safety needs; it could not be redirected, or "earmarked," by the White House, Congress or any of the states' governors or bureaucrats. The increase in the user fee would sunset in three years.

However, the problem is bigger than bridges and even bigger than the Interstate Highway System. The number of cars on our highways has increased exponentially since the Interstate System was designed and built. In 1960, there were 74 million cars and 2 million trucks on the nation's highways; today there are more than 235 million cars and trucks.

Our economy is simply too big to rely so heavily on freeways to move all the people and products in our marketplace. You wouldn't invest your entire retirement portfolio in a single stock, no matter how good the company is. So why should we risk the future of America's economy by investing in a single mode of transportation to move all of our goods, services and people?

Public transportation, buses, light rail, commuter rail, and even walking and bike paths are all parts of the solution. In the Twin Cities, congestion causes 5.3 million hours of delay a year. However, public transit eliminates 5.2 million hours of congestion. Without public transportation in the Twin Cities, congestion would be twice as bad. Unless we give commuters more options and better choices, this problem will only continue to get worse.

Congestion costs money: $1.2 billion a year to Minnesota's economy in wasted time and fuel; nationwide, that figure grows to $78 billion. This is a congestion tax that we are all paying in the form of more expensive goods and services.

Nationally, we have not significantly expanded our transportation infrastructure since we completed the Interstate System. Americans are willing to make the investment if you are straight with them about what it will cost and assure them they are getting a fair return on that investment.

When it comes to the debate on our transportation needs and practical solutions, Lewis adds nothing but misinformation and confusion, neither of which is in short supply.

Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and chairman of its Transportation Committee.