Heading into a tough election fight for his party, President Barack Obama is weighing a blend of increased infrastructure spending and tax cuts for small business, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Deborah Solomon and Johnathan Weisman of The Journal cited people familiar with the infrastructure and tax discussions, but did not name their sources directly.

The problem, of course is the notion of trying to “spend ourselves out of debt,” and even the completion of big ticket projects such as bridges, tunnels and trains have a limited impact because our infrastructure is already so well developed. In a country like China, where much of the infrastructure is being built for the first time, the impacts are much greater and much more immediate, though their system still has a lot of growing pains to overcome, as last month’s 11-day traffic jam proved.

With $30 billion in tax credits for small businesses on the table, according to the WSJ, what money is on the table for infrastructure projects is unlikely to have a dramatic impact on transportation efficiency, which isn’t to say it will be meaningless either. America’s public transportation systems need more than $70 billion in improvements and maintenance, according to the National State of Good Repair Study, and this money is highly unlikely to come from the feds. At the same time, however, the $8 billion in funding already pledged to states for high speed rail planning and construction has already triggered a whirlwind of activity.

Via: The Wall Street Journal