Editors Note
Editorial Staff Executive Editor and Director of Programs Kim Phelan kphelan@aednet.org Art Director heather jarmusz hjarmusz@aednet.org Marketing/Advertising Coordinator jaclyn Bovio jbovio@aednet.org Contributing Editors joanne costin Costin Custom Creations Garry BartecKi BDO Seidman and AED Vice President of Finance christian Klein AED Vice President of Government Affairs and Washington Counsel eli lustGarten ESL Consultants Bill & chris sitter Jordan-Sitter Associates ron slee R.J. Slee & Associates Sales Representatives Vice PresidentSales/ Publisher DaviD W. GorDon 800-388-0650 ext. 334 dgordon@aednet.org Advertising Sales Manager alBert j. ramirez 800-388-0650 ext. 311 aramirez@aednet.org 615 W. 22nd St. Oak Brook, IL 60523 630-574-0650 fax 630-574-0132 www.aednet.org September 2009 Construction Equipment Distribution www.cedmag.com 7 By Kim Phelan As far as I can tell, it's not being applied in the nation's approaches to two of its largest problems. Where, Oh Where, Has Common Sense Gone? it's the last week of august as CED goes to press, and health care reform dominates every news medium you turn to. Running on the treadmill the other day, for example, (that's my brand of health reform!) I was watching CNN's Situation Room program. After a featured expert explained some of the key elements of Obama's plan, particularly the meaning of the public option, the camera turned to Jack Cafferty, who reported that, The percentage of Americans who say eco-nomic concerns are the nation's top problem is decreasing while the number worried about health care is on the rise. I regret to say that my level of An aside: esteem for public opinion is rather on the low side. However, the power of public opinion cannot be underestimated. So Cafferty then announces his poll ques-tion of the day: Which concerns you more: health care or the economy? He did preface this by conceding that the two are much inter-twined but for the sake of the question, he asks us to pretend they are separate issues. Another aside: Are folks recognizing how adversely the economy could be affected if the wrong health care reform legislation is adopted? The price tag of the plan currently proposed by Obama exceeds $1 trillion. Back to Jack: I don't think I could answer his question. No, I'm afraid health care and the economy are totally inseparable pri-marily because of the raunchy state of the economy and the negligence Congress and the president demonstrate by favoring social reforms over such basic economy-reviving legislation as infrastructure funding, aka, highway trust fund reauthorization. If this pre-existing condition of the economy and higher priorities were not present, perhaps I'd feel differently about casting my vote. As it stands, there is too much at stake in ignoring or postponing federal action on the nation's roads and bridges and it has to do with the health of the economy and Americans! In this issue of CED, we lead off our features section with an exclusive HTF status report au-thored by Christian Klein and Daniel Fisher from the AED Washington team. Their introduction related to the safety side of the highway debate is most compelling. (See page 18) But a memorable crescendo of their article really lights my ire: ...despite intense lob-bying by AED and its allies, and the myriad studies and reports documenting needs and proposing solutions, Congress has failed to focus on highway reauthorization. Even the economic collapse in the construction indus-try, where unemployment rates are above 18 percent, hasn't gotten much attention on the Hill. Indeed, instead of working on highway reauthorization, health care and climate change legislation have taken center stage this year, despite the fact that neither bill is expected to create jobs or stimulate growth. Something may have occurred on the reauthorization front by the time this edi-tion reaches your desk, but I'm afraid there isn't much to indicate that Congress' Sept. 30 deadline will be taken seriously by those with authority to act. It occurs to me that maybe One last aside: the reason more Americans are concerned about health care is the president because has pushed it to the center stage (and they're frightened about the outcome), rather than the opposite scenario in which a president acts of the majority's because concerns. So which came first in this case? Let's pick up the dialog at right af-AEDToday ter Executive Forum. Please don't tell me you're not subscribing yet. ( aednet.org/aedtoday) Thanks for engaging in the issues, and thanks for reading. Editor's Note Kim Phelan () is the kphelan@aednet.org executive editor of Construction Equipment Distribution and Director of Programs for AED.