Subject: RE: For Comms edits: Infrastructure sample op-ed
From: "Paustenbach, Mark" <[email-masked]>
To: "Walsh, Tom" <[email-masked]>, "Miranda, Luis" <[email-masked]>, "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 May 2016 15:02:00 -0700

Edits in green.

Just need to add in something where I've placed "XXX"'s.

Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary &
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
W: 202.863.8148
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>

From: Walsh, Tom
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 4:45 PM
To: Miranda, Luis; Paustenbach, Mark; Walker, Eric
Subject: For Comms edits: Infrastructure sample op-ed

Investing in Our Future, Investing in Infrastructure

This week is National Infrastructure Week - an opportunity to pay a little more attention to how the infrastructure we often take for granted matters in our daily lives, and how much investing in infrastructure improvements can contribute to economic growth and our long-term prosperity.

Politically, there's a clear divide on this issue. Nothing will ever force us to invest tax dollars in roads, airports, bridges, ports, our electric grid, internet, and drinking-water systems, and thanks to the Republican Party, we often don't.

For years, the Republicans at every level of government have largely succeeded in obstructing legislation that would put tax dollars into infrastructure, usually justifying their obstruction by calling those projects wasteful government spending.

In 2011, Republicans blocked a plan to spend $60 billion on infrastructure as part of president Obama's American Jobs Act. In 2012, House Republicans introduced a five-year transportation bill that was strongly opposed by safety and environment advocates. And in 2015, Senate Republicans blocked a $478 billion infrastructure bill.

Here in [STATE] (Include State-specific points about how State/Congressional Republicans obstruct/oppose infrastructure investments to reward wealthy with tax cuts)

What these Republicans will never admit, though, is that the short-term savings they like to brag about when they get their way are actually costing you, your family, and the economy in the long term.

Traffic jams, airport delays, repairs after catastrophic collapses, power failures, and the human and health care costs that come with infrastructure failures like what we've seen most recently in the Flint, Michigan water crisis, are all a tremendous drag on our economy.

The America Society of Civil Engineers has calculated that over the next decade, the deterioration of our infrastructure will cut payroll growth by 2.5 million jobs and $4 trillion of gross domestic product<http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/12/bad-roads-bridges-could-pare-4t-from-gdp-in-a-decade.html> in lost sales and higher costs.

That's why we need strong Democratic leadership at every level of government, especially here in [STATE]. (State-specifics of Democrats fighting for/advocating for infrastructure investments.

The issue of infrastructure spending is also a critical part of the current presidential election, with the same clear contrast between the two parties.

Although he pays the idea lip-service and says he's in favor of infrastructure repair, Donald Trump's hollow rhetoric doesn't add up. His tax plan alone would cost the American economy $9.5 trillion dollars - leaving no room for any meaningful new investments in infrastructure repair without serious and devastating cuts to other vital government programs.

But Democrats are offering smart, substantive ideas that make good economic sense. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have plans to create jobs through repairing our bridges and roads, building high-speed rail, installing solar and wind energy equipment, and wiring rural America.

And, what about the GOPWhat's Trump got? Tax cuts for the wealthy and XXXXX. a plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Labor and business agree that we need to repair, improve, and expand America's crumbling infrastructure. Yet Republicans continue to block infrastructure spending that would create jobs, make roads and bridges safer, shorten commutes, and improve internet access for millions.

We need to put America to work building bridges, not walls. We must elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November.