We need inspired leadership, focused on the single greatest and least partisan issue facing us today: revitalizing our economy and creating the millions of jobs we need to make America great once again.

Anyone with half a brain will see this is the ideal time to borrow money from the rest of the world to put Americans to work rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. Problem is, too many in Washington have less than half a brain.

I am shocked by the U.S. budget negotiations between Congress and President Obama. Every part of the budget debate in the U.S. is built on a tissue of willful deceit.

To ignore needed public investments based on anti-spending ideology is to create an infrastructure deficit much more worrisome and damaging to the long-term economic well-being of this nation than the federal budget deficit.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out strategies for better education, better energy production, better transportation and better job creation. All of these strategies are key to a stronger American economy.

Obama noted this plan "will change the way Washington spends your tax dollars." Given it's our tax dollars, I want to make a request. Let's have an online system through which the government can articulate success to the broader population.

If we are to finance and build a world-class infrastructure for America, we must seek new solutions. And a promising solution is at hand: public-private partnerships.

The Real Wealth of our Nation is Its People Over half a million people lost their jobs last month. There's no question we need a job-creation plan. T...

The Bush Administration's DOT succeeded in knocking a sizeable hole in Illinois' ban on pay-to-play deals that the state Senate had attempted to pass in the wake of the Blagojevich scandal.

We need to spend federal money now to help jump-start employment and incomes, but once we are spending money, we should devote it to something worthwhile.

Obama is preparing a Christmas list for us in the form of a massive stimulus package but his promises of support for green industries are not included in the infrastructure package.

The nation must boldly rebuild to avoid the perils of a dangerously gyrating world where yesterday's swaggering certainty is tomorrow's worn out wisdom.

We need smarter, more targeted spending. We must invest in the people, places and projects that will spread the most opportunity to communities that need it.