Barack Obama in his state of the union address 2011, has proposed to win the future through investments in building high speed rail and internet infrastructure, at the same time proposing cuts on the annual domestic spending
Obama, while speaking before both the houses of U.S. Congress, has proposed to ‘freeze’ for five years, the annual domestic spending, which is just more that 12 percent of the country’s budget. The American president said it was not worth saving on infrastructure development, science and education.
“I am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years,” Obama said in his state of the union Address.
As per Obama’s estimates, such measures will reduce the budget deficit by $ 400 billion over 10 years.
Also, the U.S. president urged to start a ‘restructuring’ in the U.S. or ‘winning the future.’
He also added that for attracting new business to American shores, it needs the fastest and most reliable ways to move people, goods and information, ranging from high-speed Internet to high-speed rail.
Speaking of transport, Obama has called for improving the transport infrastructure of the country. “Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 per cent of Americans access to high-speed rail, which could allow you go places in half the time it takes to travel by car, ” said the President in his address to the joint session of the US Congress.
He added “For some trips, it will be faster than flying – without the pat-down. As we speak, routes in California and the Midwest are already underway.”
“Our infrastructure used to be the best — but our lead has slipped….We have to do better…. South Korean homes now have greater Internet access than we do. Countries in Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do”
During his state of the union address, he talked about efforts to fight the deficit and how America needs to build the future, Obama also emphasized on $78 billion cuts over five years in Pentagon budget have become unavoidable, in addition to the five-year partial freeze on domestic spending.
