Pete Davis is a tad underwhelmed:
Yesterday, President Obama announced a six-year $50 billion program to rebuild 150,000 miles of highways, to lay and maintain 4,000 miles of rail lines, to restore 150 miles of runways, and to put the NextGen air traffic control system in place. Tomorrow in Cleveland, he is expected to announce full expensing for all businesses of qualified investment made by the end of 2011. These are reasonable next steps to sustain the economy as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act spending tails off, but most of the impact would be felt after 2012, and it's doubtful that the Senate would pass these proposals this year in any event.
Ryan Avent's judgment:
On the one hand, this is all fairly sensible. The nation needs a new transportation funding law, and the frontloading of the scheduled spending would help offset scheduled declines in federal stimulus. On the other hand, I'm now more convinced that this is campaign fodder rather than a serious measure.