Will Perry defend infrastructure spending?
Out of the gate, Rick Perry has championed his "all cuts, no tax increases" approach to budgeting in Texas in his bid for the presidency. But the Texas governor hasn't always been averse to government spending and user fees to support ambitious infrastructure overhauls on the state level, even in the face of opposition from his party's right flank.
When Perry took office as governor in 2001, one of his earliest and most ambitious initiatives was the Trans-Texas Corridor, a $184 billion plan to build a network of toll highways, rail corridors and utility lines that stretched 4,000 miles. Partly financed through privately operated tolls, the plan was intended to address clogged roadways to the Mexican border and across the state. Perry's plan quickly ignited a firestorm on the left as well as on the right, where the project was dubbed a "NAFTA Superhighway" that appeared intended to create an open roadway between Mexico and Canada. The blowback ultimately scuttled Perry's plan in 2005. But some conservative activists are already vowing to remind 2012 voters of the Texas governor's initiative.
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Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=2251569b1006e184f78d9a455672fe6f
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