The United States commits billions of dollars to the nation’s transportation needs. What lacks, Sen. Kit Bond believes, is a detailed plan for the spending.

Missouri’s senior senator offered that view Thursday to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood during an appropriations subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill. Mr. Bond said Obama administration plans for transportation repeat mistakes of last year.

“With a $12 trillion-dollar and growing deficit, we can’t just throw federal funds at projects willy-nilly,” the Republican lawmaker said.

Mr. Bond stressed a full and transparent plan would not only build infrastructure but the nation’s economy. But the proposed transportation budget, he said, makes no allowance for revenue problems in the highway trust fund and mass transit account.

He added that more light needs to shine on the process of project selection. “Why should all of the decisions about spending our scarce federal resources be made by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats?” Mr. Bond asked.

About job

creation

The U.S. House passed a jobs bill Thursday, though not with the support of lawmakers from this region.

By a vote of 217 to 201, representatives approved the $15 billion measure that would temporarily cut payroll taxes for companies creating jobs. The bill, already approved by the Senate, contained an amendment that will require reconsideration in the upper chamber before going to the president for his signature.

Republican Reps. Sam Graves, who represents Northwest Missouri, and Lynn Jenkins, whose district includes Northeast Kansas, voted against the measure.

This week, Mr. Graves wrote a piece for The Hill newspaper urging the reduction of regulatory barriers to job creation and resumption of credit to small companies.

“Small businesses deserve a commitment to economic growth and job creation,” the lawmaker wrote. “Our economy depends on it, and our nation’s innovators cannot wait any longer.”

Numbers don’t work

Kathleen Sebelius identifies with the American people in not understanding the math of health insurers.

The former Kansas governor, now secretary of Health and Human Services, said Thursday the “jaw-dropping rate increases” proposed by insurance firms don’t square with $12.7 billion in profits made last year by the top five companies.

“It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to people across America,” Ms. Sebelius said after a meeting with representatives of the nation’s largest health insurers.

She pressed the company executives to provide justification for rate increases of 20 percent or more after a year of great profitability. She also used the opportunity to sell the Obama administration’s health reform plan, which the secretary said would create a new marketplace and greater regulatory oversight.

“We will have some leveraging power for these small business owners and individuals who right now are really victims of what is a situation where they’re being priced out of health insurance,” said Ms. Sebelius, a former Kansas insurance commissioner.

Ken Newton can be reached

at kenn@npgco.com.