What Does a Proposal to Expand Social Security Have to do With Transportation?

Wait, what?  I thought the national debate was about whether to cut Social Security (and by how much) or maybe to keep it at the same level!  Well, it has been, but now there is a proposal on the table to expand Social Security significantly, based on the idea that for most Americans this is the best guarantee for retirement security, given that both defined benefit pensions and retirement accounts have faltered in recent years.  The authors of Expanded SocialSecurity: A Plan to Increase Retirement Security for All Americans support their case with a lot of good arguments, including why it is affordable, but my attention is drawn to the last paragraph of the Executive Summary:

“At present the discussion is dominated by those who want to privatize or shrink Social Security and those on the defensive who propose merely incremental reforms to preserve it. We seek not merely to move the ball, but also to move the goalpost in order to enlarge the boundaries of the national conversation about the future of retirement security in America.”

My question is, why not take the same approach for investment in transportation?

How about this:

“At present the discussion is dominated by those who want to privatize or shrink Social Security federal and state investment in transportation and those on the defensive who propose merely incremental reforms to preserve it. We seek not merely to move the ball, but also to move the goalpost in order to enlarge the boundaries of the national conversation about the future of retirement security transportation in America.”

Our debates on how to plan and build a real 21^st century transportation system in this country have been wholly unsatisfactory.  Time to move the goal post!