REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

There goes the infrastructure...

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Thursday, September 1, 2011 19:52
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Thursday, September 1, 2011 4:24 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Quote:

Fresh from a battle with House Republicans over aviation funding, congressional Democrats led by Sen. Barbara Boxer will soon clash with their GOP counterparts over highway and mass transit programs. The potential jobs at stake for California — and the nation — dwarf those of the airport funding scrap.

Federal funding for highway construction and repair, as well as mass transit, expires Sept. 30, at a time when some say infrastructure improvements are a great way to put people to work in a struggling economy.

When lawmakers return from their August recess, House Republicans led by Florida Republican John Mica want to pass new legislation that cuts funding for those programs by 33 percent to 36 percent. http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110808/NEWS0301/108080312/House-GOP-
wants-billions-cuts-road-funding
Kee-riste, with our infrastructure crumbling around us, THIS is what they want to do? Gimme a break!

Their recent bill would raise disaster money (which they previously cut), but at the cost of state funds for disaster preparedness, among other things (like cutting grants for clean energy vehicles).

The logic escapes me.
Quote:

Such are the incentives of the American political system. The Pentagon spending $50 million on a "lightning weapon" that doesn't work is business as usual but making sure our bridges are sturdy enough to withstand strong tropical storms is a low priority.
In New York
Quote:

The commuter rails are crippled. The airports -- especially JFK, which practically shuts down any time the wind picks up -- are shut down. Thousands of outer-borough residents and many of the nearby suburbs are completely without power. These are some of the oldest cities in the country, and their power and water and transportation systems show it.
.....
Finding the cash to turn the NYPD into a paramilitary international intelligence agency is no problem. Replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge will take another decade. And replacing a bridge is at least a big, sexy project that state legislators love. It's even harder to get people excited about addressing sand erosion in Rockaway Beach.

For some information on our low infrastructure spending and the political incentives that got us here, check out http://www.economist.com/node/18620944?story_id=18620944 It's truly sad, what's happening to this country.


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Thursday, September 1, 2011 4:48 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Hello,

I will believe the Republican claim to the fiscal high ground when they move to stop the wars and slash the military budget. But to maintain such programs while scuttling our infrastructure needs is irreconcilable to me.

The truth seems to be that they are generally content to inflate the military for the public welfare while tearing down programs that actually improve the welfare of the public.

--Anthony


_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Thursday, September 1, 2011 7:52 PM

DREAMTROVE


Seems unlikely to me to. I know their beef with trains: They obviate mass consumer oil consumption. But it seems that the gas companies will pressure in favor of massive investment in highways to do their work for them, and also probably divert some of that right up to drill pad construction.


That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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