Obama to Sink $50B Into Rails, Roads, Runways

Looking to jumpstart the economy, President Obama will use his Labor Day to announce an ambitious $50 billion spending plan aimed at the country's infrastructure: Roads, rails, and runways. The cost would be spread out over six years, notes the AP, but carries significant immediate spending that the White House hopes will be felt, say, before November. The president will announce this afternoon in Milwaukee.

The plan will "put construction workers, welders, electricians back to work," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says, "folks that have been unemployed for a long time." Some specifics, as told by the White House to Mike Allen of Politico:

• Rebuild 150,000 miles of roads
• Construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail, enough to go coast-to-coast.
• Rehab or reconstruct 150 miles of runways, putting in place a system that will reduce travel time and delays.

(More infrastructure stories.)