You can listen to PBO’s speech at 2:30 pm via audio here
Brent Spence Bridge: 3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product crosses the Brent Spence each year.
President Obama to visit the Brent Spence Bridge in Ohio on September. 22 in order to highlight the “urgent need” for infrastructure improvements, one of the ideas included in his bill.
By Steve Benen
like it when the White House makes smart decisions.
President Obama will promote his jobs bill at a bridge important to House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) district next week, the White House announced Thursday.
The White House said that Obama would visit the Brent Spence Bridge in Ohio on Sept. 22 in order to highlight the “urgent need” for infrastructure improvements, one of the ideas included in his bill.
Although the bridge is located very near Boehner’s district, Obama has not spoken to the Speaker since he gave his speech introducing the bill to a joint session of Congress last week, and White House press secretary Jay Carney did not know Thursday whether Boehner had been notified.
Carney said the bridge was chosen because it is “relatively easy to get to from Washington.”
Carney was being coy, and that’s fine. There’s no great mystery about the political angle of the president’s appearance.
TAKE THE FIGHT, THE TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE, MR. PRESIDENT.
Who Will Pay To Fix That Bridge In Ohio?
The gun-metal-colored bridge spanning the Ohio River opened almost half a century ago with an 85,000-vehicle-per-day capacity. Today, the Brent Spence Bridge carries nearly twice that and is rated functionally obsolete by the National Bridge Inventory.
As part of his jobs creation plan, President Obama will be making a trip to that bridge next week. You may not have heard of it, but chances are you own a lot of things that have been across it. It’s one of the busiest trucking routes in North America.
Listen to the NPR segment here.
Vice President Biden on jobs