RP @ OKI

Guest blogger Margaret McGurk reports:

Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman, who once held the congressional seat now occupied by Jean Schmidt, got a standing ovation Friday when he stood up to speak at the annual meeting of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (what most of us call OKI).

Portman politely dodged a question about his favorite in the GOP presidential primaries ("I work for the government now, so I can't get involved"), and congratulated the regional officials and contractors in attendance for doing a good job at coordinating their efforts -- which largely involve transportation issues.

For instance, he said, average commuting time in the eight OKI counties has increased by only about 2 minutes in the past 10 years. "Among cities in the U.S., we are blessed -- and those of you who come up 75 every day may not believe it -- to have relatively short commuting times."

With the next five-year federal authorization bill for major road projects just two years away, Portman said that paying for a new Brent Spence Bridge may call for "public-private partnerships."

"That usually means tolls," he said. On the other hand, if gas prices and driving habits remain relatively unchanged, federal road funds could be sufficient to cover the tab.

Nobody, he said, is talking about tapping into general revenues, which are under growing pressure from entitlement programs, particularly Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Portman repeatedly made the poin that spending on those programs is growing at an "unsustainble" rate that would, if left unchecked, swamp the federal budget within a few decades.

Small fixes now, he said, could have huge long-term payoffs. One example: Tie Social Security cost-of-living raises to prices instead of wages. Otherwise, he said, entitlement programs could rack up a $34 trillion deficit over 75 years: "It's a fiscal trainwreck."