During a Business Roundtable question-and-answer session on Wednesday, President Barack Obama told corporate leaders that he was embarrassed that U.S. infrastructure was "falling behind" an aggressively-spending China, reported The Hill.
"I'd much rather have our problems than China's problems. That I'm confident about. On the other hand, the one thing I will say is if they need to build some stuff, they can build it," Obama told the group of CEOs who represent businesses worth $7.4 trillion in annual revenues. "And over time, that wears away our advantage competitively. It's embarrassing. You know, you drive down the roads and you look at what they're able to do."
Obama noted that during his recent trip to China for the APEC summit, buildings where top business people work would "probably put most of the conference centers here to shame."
"They had built it in a year," he said. "Now, you got an authoritarian government, you know, that isn't necessarily accountable. I understand we're not going to do that. But if they're able to build their ports, their airports, their smart grid, their air traffic control systems, their broadband systems with that rapidity and they're highly superior to ours, over time that's going to be a problem for us."
"It makes no sense that we have a first-class economy with second-class infrastructure," Obama added.
One notable problem in the U.S. is partisan gridlock over funding for the infrastructure projects. Lawmakers are often hesitant to increase taxes, especially a gas tax when dealing with road and bridge projects, said Obama, although he remains hopeful that Congress would find a source of revenue, according to The Hill.
"Votes on gas taxes are really tough," he said. "Gas prices are one of those things that really bug people."
The opportunity to work on tax reform will likely only exist if Congress can pass government funding measures during the lame-duck session before leaving for holiday.
