In an astounding display of economic shortsightedness, House Republicans want to cut transportation and transit infrastructure funding so deeply that it would cost half a million jobs next year alone and send the nation’s highways, bridges and transit systems into even deeper disrepair.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the proposed six-year transportation reauthorization bill from Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) is “unconscionable… at a time when 14 million Americans who want to work cannot find jobs and our nation suffers a $2.2 trillion infrastructure deficit.”

It defies imagination that the Republican leadership and chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would turn their backs on the needs of our country and pretend it is good government.

Mica’s proposal would cut transportation funding to a level that is 20 percent less than the last reauthorization bill signed by President Bush in 2005.  Read the entire story by clicking here.