South Carolina Motorcycle Rights Association

Much Ado About Nothing

Not a lot of transportation work was done this week. Actually, not a lot of any kind of actual legislative business got done this week at all, but that doesn't mean there wasn’t action. In fact, it was quite the blustery week indeed.

By now you have heard about the fractured Republican Party, the rise and fall of Kevin McCarthy and the future of the House of Representatives. Much ado about nothing is what we really have here.

I have some personal friends in Speaker Boehner’s office. I can assure every one that Boehner is just sick of the BS. As a devout Catholic, his one lasting desire was to host the Pope in his chambers and he did that. One could make the argument that being in charge of running the House right now is the single worst job in America. McCarthy’s meteoric rise as the heir apparent is not some strange succession. Being Majority Leader often turns into being the Speaker—it’s a natural succession. McCarthy of course has dropped out now, but succeeding Boehner would have been a pretty normal move. As for the shape of the Republican Party, it has suffered a blow but it is not as bad as the news makes it out to be. The Republicans will find a new Speaker, and that person will have their own style that will surely anger some while delighting others. That’s the nature of being Speaker: you can’t be all things to all people. I think this week was more about media madness than anything else.

Highway Bill Progress

Getting back to transportation stuff. The House continues to work on their version of the highway bill, and I expect a markup near the end of the month. The motorcycle language has drawn the ire of the Governors Highway Safety Association, and their lobbyist told a group at the State Motorcycle Safety Association that the helmet language in the bill was “a pain in the ass.” Guess what, folks? When the GHSA calls you a pain in the ass, all that means to me is that we are doing it right! So all this action is inching the highway bill forward, but no one is actually talking about how we’re going to pay for this bill. In order to fully fund it, we need to generate about $43 billion dollars in new money. Considering how much of your GDP is being shorted and the condition of the infrastructure, we need to start looking really hard for revenue.