Washington Policy Blog: Forcing you to work and live where the government wants

Washington Policy Blog: Forcing you to work and live where the government wants :
Ron Utt at Heritage

President Barack Obama's early comments on his opposition to suburban sprawl and his intention to alter the way Americans live and travel took a step closer to reality when he created an interdepartmental initiative on housing and transportation costs. A March press release issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a new interagency partnership to create "affordable, sustainable communities." Included among its many goals are projects to:

- Develop a new cost index that combines housing and transportation costs into a single measure to better illuminate the true costs by "redefining affordability and making it transparent,"
- Encourage "transportation choice," and
- Require even more planning by the many federally funded regional planning entities that are already attempting to guide Americans toward a suppos edly better life.

Rich in the sort of progressive euphemisms used to mask real intentions, the press release heralds a process that could likely lead to an unprecedented federal effort to force Americans into an antiquated lifestyle that was common to the early years of the previous century. More specifically, these initiatives reflect an escalation in what is shaping up as Presi dent Obama's apparent intent to re-energize and lead the Left's longstanding war against America's suburbs.