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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal for public transportation is shaping up as a test of whether he still can influence Congress after Democratic defeats in the November elections.

On Monday, Obama proposed a 127 percent increase in public transit spending at a time Republicans say their first priority is to reduce the deficit.

Except for public transportation, nearly all other parts of Obama’s $3.73 trillion national budget seek to control spending in a style demanded by Republicans.

Obama says the additional transportation funding would create jobs and stimulate the economy.

“As President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address, we must win the future by investing in a modern transportation network that will enable us to out-compete the rest of the world,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott dealt a blow to the Obama administration plans when he said he would reject the $2 billion the federal government offered his state for a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando.

Like two other Republican governors who rejected federal rail funding, Scott said the money could be used better elsewhere.

“The truth is that this project would be far too costly to taxpayers and I believe the risk far outweighs the benefits,” Scott said in a statement.

His sentiments have been echoed in recent days by Republicans in Congress.

“We’re not a fan of high-speed rail at all,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Republicans control most of the seats in the House of Representatives after disenchanted voters turned against Democrats in November.

Obama’s proposal would spend $22 billion on public transportation in 2012, much of it for a series of high-speed passenger rail lines. Other parts of the money would help support urban transit agencies.

Members of Congress are discussing the president’s budget proposal this week in hearings on a variety of national issues.

On Thursday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans a hearing to determine how the United States can make better use of the nation’s rail network.

The hearing will focus on government-backed loans for infrastructure projects under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program.

The loans primarily fund freight rail projects, “Although they sometimes have been used by commuter railroads to buy rail cars,” Joyce Rose, staff director for the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on railroads, told All Headline News.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on railroads, recently expressed concern the increased public transportation funding Obama proposes would not be spent effectively.

“Government won’t develop American high-speed rail,” he said. “Private investment and a competitive market will.”

Rep. John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said any additional government passenger rail funding should be focused on the Northeast Corridor, where taxpayers would get the greatest return on their investment.

Otherwise, the money could be wasted on “marginal projects” in other places, he said.

The new Republican governors of Wisconsin and Ohio have rejected federal government offers of hundreds of millions of dollars for passenger rail projects in their states. They said the projects would require the state to waste money on yearly subsidies.

The Transportation Department responded by giving the money to other states, such as California, which plans to build a 220-mph “bullet train” to run the length of the state.

The American Public Transportation Association estimates that every $1 billion the government spends on public transportation returns $4 billion in new economic activity.

Obama’s budget proposal would spend $8 billion on high-speed rail projects the first year and $45 billion over the next five years.

During a press conference at Philadelphia’s 30th Street transit station last week, Vice President Joe Biden said, “In a global economy, we can’t forget that infrastructure is also the veins and the arteries of commerce.”

Obama’s plan seeks to give 80 percent of Americans access to passenger rail within 25 years.

Republicans say the president might be creating a false hope while the national deficit stands near $14 trillion.

The Obama administration already has spent $10.5 billion on high-speed rail projects in its economic stimulus program to help the U.S. economy recover from the recession that began in December 2007.

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