Business and labor support more infrastructure spending

President Barack Obama is applauded by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011, while delivering his State of the Union address. UPI/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/POOL

In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama made a strong case for investments necessary for our future, particularly infrastructure spending. There will be a big battle with the GOP over any spending initiative, but the president is getting support from an unlikely pairing.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, often bitter foes in conflicts between business and labor, released a rare joint statement Wednesday in support of President Barack Obama’s call for additional infrastructure spending.

The business lobby and union conglomerate’s respective leaders offered a united front in applauding the broad pitch for domestic development in Obama’s State of the Union address.

“America’s working families and business community stand united in applauding President Obama’s call to create jobs and grow our economy through investment in our nation’s infrastructure,” their joint statement reads. “Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband, energy systems and schools, these projects not only create jobs and demand for businesses, they are an investment in building the modern infrastructure our country needs to compete in a global economy.

“With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO standing together to support job creation, we hope that Democrats and Republicans in Congress will also join together to build America’s infrastructure.”

It will be interesting to see if momentum build for more spending in this area.

  

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