Washington Got Something (Good) Done
No one will accuse Washington, D.C. of having its act together. The past few years have been associated with gobs of inaction, which among other things translated into a downgrading of America’s debt rating and a federal government shutdown.

But last year ushered in a new Speaker of the House. During the final months of last year, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan helped push through the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, with President Obama signing the bill into law on December 1, 2015. The bill sets aside $305 billion over the next five years (2016-2020) for various programs associated with transportation and infrastructure, some of which include highway and motor vehicle safety, public, motor carrier safety, hazardous materials safety, and rail. It also allows funds to be used for research, technology, and statistical programs.

For more than a decade, America subsisted as a nation lacking a serious highway bill, with a series of stopgap measures being passed whenever the Highway Trust Fund fell into or toward negative territory. The FAST Act is not a stopgap measure. It is a serious piece of legislation aimed at creating and fostering an economic environment that will allow Americans to be more productive and for the nation to continue to compete with the balance of the world.

That’s important because America is no longer becoming more productive. Between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, the number of hours worked by Americans expanded by 1.9%. Gross domestic product expanded by exactly the same amount, meaning that while America is working harder, it’s not working smarter – this despite an army of new technologies ranging from communications devices to robotics.