U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined the state’s leading legislators, lobbyists and business leaders at the 2022 Mackinac Policy Conference Wednesday to discuss the nation’s high inflation rates and supply shortages. The former South Bend, Ind., mayor pointed to expanding rail infrastructure to help meet these needs.
“Supply chain problems have been building in this country for decades. The underinvestment that went on in every part of our transportation infrastructure has left us vulnerable,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg said the Biden administration will be announcing Thursday investments into rail infrastructure that will “improve the fluidity of goods” in 36 states and Washington, D.C.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined Buttigieg, members of the Michigan congressional delegation and local leaders Wednesday to sign an executive directive streamlining Michigan’s infrastructure permitting process.
“In Michigan, we’re fixing the damn roads and bridges, repairing crumbling water infrastructure, and making progress on so many other infrastructure priorities from high-speed internet to parks and electric vehicle charging stations,” said Whitmer. “Today’s executive directive will make our permitting process even more user-friendly, ensuring projects can get moving and be completed on time and on budget.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at the Mackinac Policy Conference, June 1, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins
The high inflation rates and a looming possibility of a recession is because the supply chain has not been able to keep up with the “fastest job growth the economy has ever seen” and low unemployment rates since the recession during the early months of the pandemic, Buttigieg said.
On Tuesday, the Detroit Regional Chamber released findings from a statewide poll of registered Michigan voters that showed Michiganders’ top concern right now is inflation.
Nearly 73% of respondents, from every demographic group, said the economy is on the wrong track due to inflation, and one-third of respondents listed the economy and inflation as their top concern.
Among the majority of voters who said the economy was on the wrong track, 44% specifically cited inflation and cost of goods, 10% cited gas prices and only 2% of these voters cited a lack of jobs.
But Buttigieg said that investments into rail infrastructure is the administration’s long term investment in infrastructure.
“The truth is, we can’t wait for long term investments to untangle some of the issues we have right now,” Buttigieg said.
The short term plan is to work with the private sector companies that own and operate most of the supply chain by holding shippers accountable for lost cargo and pressing companies to exchange data.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks at the Mackinac Policy Conference, June 1, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins
Buttigieg on Roe v. Wade, future of gay marriage
When Buttigieg ran for president in 2020, he became the first gay candidate to win the Iowa caucuses led the Democratic field for a time. Now he is the first openly gay cabinet member in the Biden administration.
But after a draft decision leaked last month from the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, which enshrined the right to an abortion in the U.S. Constitution, Buttigieg said he is concerned for what this could mean for the country’s constitutional right to same-sex marriage, as well.
“This is really personal,” he said. “I started my day at our wonderful house in Traverse City with my wonderful husband [Michigan native Chasten Buttigieg] … and I was thinking about the fact that the very existence of our household, at least legally, came about by the margin of a single vote on the Supreme Court [in 2015].”
Buttigieg said the country has been continually pushing to roll back rights in recent years.
“We have been on a steady, if uneven, path toward rights and freedoms being expanded. And I think the question that has been raised by the Roe decision … we reached a view as a country that the way we resolve this very difficult issue is to trust whether that’s right. And after 50 years, that’s apparently being thrown out the window,” Buttigieg said. “The broader question that I think is before us now will be: Do we live to see the high watermark of rights and freedoms in this country and watch that begin to move in the opposite direction for the first time in history?”
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authored by Allison R. Donahue
First published at https%3A%2F%2Fmichiganadvance.com%2F2022%2F06%2F01%2Fbuttigieg-says-investing-in-transportation-could-be-the-answer-to-lower-inflation%2F
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