Lisa Dolak and Fareed Zakaria on the Need For Infrastructure Investment

After returning to Syracuse from a weekend at home, I decided to catch up with Ivory Tower, which I had DVR’ed. Moderated by Barbara Fought (Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University), this edition of Ivory Tower featured a powerhouse panel including: Tim Byrnes (Colgate University), Bob Greene (Cazenovia College), Bob Spitizer (SUNY Cortland), Kristi Andersen (Maxwell School of Syracuse University) and Lisa Dolak (Syracuse University College of Law).

The panel discussed President Obama’s State of the Union Address and its most promising proposals. During this discussion, Professor Lisa Dolak described the President’s call to invest in infrastructure as a “win-win” (9:45)  She explained that investing in infrastructure would not only fix our crumbling roads and bridges but would also put millions of Americans back to work.

Fareed Zakaria agrees and goes a step further.  According to Zakaria, investing in infrastructure would “win-win-win.”  In addition to the benefits Prof. Dolak describes, Zakaria points out that infrastructure spending is fiscally responsible.  This is so for two reasons.  First, fixing our infrastructure is an investment that needs to be made whether sooner or later.  However, if we wait to fix our our roads and bridges the costs will be greater since there will be further, more serious deterioration.  Second, investing in infrastructure would boost growth and thereby decrease the debt and deficit.