Posted on 08/05/2007 12:39:17 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
NEW YORK (AP) -- A U.S. senator says the collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis underscores a need for the federal government to devote more funding to the ``urgent maintenance'' of the nation's aging bridges and less to building new ones.
With the Brooklyn Bridge serving as a dramatic backdrop, Sen. Charles Schumer, DN.Y., told a news conference Sunday that he will introduce legislation next month to double a proposed transportation bill appropriation from $5 billion to $10 billion for that sole purpose.
``The urgency of maintenance has been made apparent by the Minneapolis tragedy,'' Schumer said. ``This disaster must be a wake-up call to get our nation's transportation infrastructure in order.''
He said that for ``far too long, highways and bridges in New York and other older areas have been allowed to degrade to the point of dangerous repair'' while federal subsidies went to a small number of new facilities in less populous states.
Schumer cited recent studies by two federal agencies to support his position.
He said a U.S. Department of Transportation report showed that while bridge maintenance funds dropped from $12.5 billion in 2004 to $12.4 billion in 2006, new highway and bridge spending went from $52.9 billion to $58.8 billion.
Meanwhile, he said, an Office of Management and Budget study predicted the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for improvements, could become insolvent by $4.l billion in 2009 and have a deficit of $8.1 billion by 2010 unless money is restored.
A least five people are known dead, eight missing and 24 still hospitalized since last Wednesday's rush-hour collapse of a bridge carrying Interstate 35W over the Mississippi river in Minneapolis. The eight-lane bridge was a vital traffic artery in the Twin Cities.
``We need a comprehensive effort at the federal, state and local levels to ensure that this type of collapse never happens again,'' Schumer said.
In New York City alone, about 35 percent of some 2,600 bridges are ``structurally deficient,'' an aide to Schumer said. Bridges includes on and off ramps and other vehicle accesses more than 20 feet long, he said.
The 124-year-old Brooklyn Bridge was one of three city spans recently given a ``poor condition'' rating, but federal and city officials have said the bridge's poor performance on inspections was due largely to deterioration of its newer approach ramps in Brooklyn and Manhattan, which are already scheduled for reconstruction in 2010.
Schumer is in his element: Holding yet another press conference. And using it to demand increased Federal spending on top of that.
And just where is this additional money supposed to come from, Senator?
So Chucky wants more federal dollars to pay for bridges belonging to the State of New York because of a bridge failure in another state. That is kind of low even for him.
I’d be more impressive if he did it six months ago, when the ‘rats assumed power.
The guy never held a real job outside of politics.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Gee, what took Upchukie so long. That bridge collapsed days ago. “It’s Bush’s fault.” Raise everyone’s taxes.
It’s always about throwing more money at the problem, instead of focusing on using the money already allocated in the most efficient manner. But no, that would take actual brain power to do.
Umm no, the I35W bridge collapse is an example of why the Govt should NOT get any additional resources but be forced to to a much better job with the resources it has.
This collapsed bridge is a very teachable moment if Conservatives have the guts to grasp it. This is a very good example of possible consequences when existing transportation dollars are repeatedly been misapplied by both the State, and the Federal, Govt.
The problem here is not that Government, at all levels, lacks the money to spend on infrastructure repair, the problem is the Govt, at all levels, repeatedly misspends the funds it does have.
This bridge was determined structurally deficient in 1990. It was build using 1960s engineering norms that were now out of date.
During the 1990s the State of Minnesota diverted over a billion dollars of State, and Federal, infrastructure dollars into an eco-freak boondoggle light rail project between down town Minneapolis and the Minneapolis airport. The project was called the “Hiawatha Light Rail Corridor”.
Perhaps Minnesota politicians should have been tending to their existing infrastructure instead of wasting our money for political “legacy building” and “prestige” projects.
Using the currently stated cost for rebuilding the bridge at $250 million, for the cost of the light rail project this bridge could have been completely rebuilt from scratch 5 or 6 times during the 1990s.
This “Hiawatha Light Rail”project was largely the brain child of the Metropolitan Council . Either as the head of the council, or one of its most politically connected members at the time, was former VP Walter Mondale’s son Ted Mondale.
The sadly ironic thing here is the terminal for this billion dollar waste of State and Federal transportation dollars is about 1 mile from the bridge that collapsed.
Here is the link to the the website about the line. The bridge that collapsed is the one on the map where 35W crosses the blue line of the Mississippi River in the upper right of the map.
http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/lrt.htm
Additional information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha_Line
http://www.metrotransit.org/rail/station_detail.asp
Increase Federal tax on everything, toilet paper included!
A cautionary tale for those who think the government should run health care.
Schumer is king of solving problems AFTER the fact.
It wasn’t until he contracted Lymes Disease that he became concerned about it and held a Sunday presser. Prior to that, I’ll bet he didn’t know what Lymes disease was.
They’ve been getting 18 cents on every gallon of gas for years for the highways. Billions and billions of dollars. Where is all that money????????????
"We've gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen, we must do something about this immediately!"
Our infrastructure is going to hell because of pork-barrel spending. Maintenance on bridges and highways aren’t considered showy enough for our politicians. Sadly Ted Steven’s (R-AL) boondoggle, the infamous”Bridge to Nowhere “ 320 million for a bridge that will service an island with 50 inhabitants proves that it is a problem for both parties.
I fear the only answer is a depression. It will hurt everyone, but I fear it’s the only way to restore some semblance of balance to our government.
The U.S. infrastructure is falling apart and we continue to spend money to send aid to other countries and support illegals. Legal immigration increases the strain on already out of date infrastructures that were built 100 years ago. No more money—spend our tax-dollars on our country and its delapidated systems along with decrease and aggressively deport the illegals and those who overstay their visas who add to the already overburdened systems. Individual states need to step up to the plate and cover their share instead of relying on the federal government every time they turn around. Watch as the cities freshly repaved road is dug up to fix a broken water line or some other thing. Poor planning and no planning to update old systems. It is never ending patching of old systems that need to be replaced. Everyone is too interested in getting re-elected. When will it quit?
God forbid that the states and their citizens assumed responsibility for their roads.
It didn't just collapse on its own. It was being worked on at the time of the collapse.
Let me shuck it down to the cob for you, Chuckie. Money was being spent on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
Yes, Chuckie, what do you propose giving up to do this?
Oh, I know, there is plenty of money hanging out that serves no purpose. Let’s just use that! Or raise taxes!
Nah, the politicians and other elites would be just fine.
The correct money was not being spent. It was eye-candy! The structure obviously needed something additional and I think each State has some role in the money. Since I do not really know how the property tax and state income taxes are disbursed I really can’t comment further but my assumption was that the Federal Government might have helped build these structures but I assumed the State was responsible for taking care of it. Must be I am wrong? Screw Chuck and his Brooklyn Bridge that was built for horse and buggy. His state is on borrowed time I would say.
So true. And he's got a successor: Anthony Weiner. Weiner also never held a job outside of politics:
For years, Anthony Weiner lived and breathed Chuck Schumer. He went to work in Representative Schumer's office in 1985, when he was a hungry pup straight out of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Even back then, Mr. Weiner had something in mind beyond just serving his boss. "I remember him saying, 'Chuck! I'm going to take your job some day!'"
__________________________________
After winning the election, he developed the Schumer-like habit of generating publicity for himself, which did not always endear him to the elder Council members … and then … last year … he lived up to his boast: He won Mr. Schumer's old House seat (for the district covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens) after squeaking through a tough primary and handily taking the general election.
_________________________________________
While running for the seat, he depicted himself as a kind of baby Schumer in stump speeches, stressing his ties to the man he calls "my only professional influence."
_________________________________________
"But before I was a Congressman, I was a City Councilman, before I got to know any of you, and before that I worked for Congressman Schumer–and as you can see I've maybe started to look like him a little bit. Like you begin to look like your pet, I've started to look like Chuck a little! And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
Well, hell, who's to say that if Chuckie The Schemer got his wish that the money still wouldn't be spent on eye candy.
Chucky Schumer didn't come up with this idea on his own. Several Freepers (me included) have been razzing the House Democrats about voting Friday to increase taxes on fuels by $19 billion without earmarking all of it for infrastructure improvement, and rebuilding the Minneapolis bridge.
The whole business has made the Dems look like the brutal, uncaring thugs they really are.
It appears to have worked, at least with Chucky.
No, he's not stopped being a brutal, uncaring thug, but his constituents have tens of thousands of crummy bridges made that way through decades of Democratic party graft and corruption.
Rather than stand there screeching at "W" he's turned his attention to an opportunity for pork.
At the same time he's become utterly silent about "W"'s responsibility for the bridge ~ .
This is going to get worse before it gets better.
Oh, yeah, this also proves Chucky has somebody on his staff whose job it is to read Free Republic.
Make her life miserable!
I agree. States should be held responsible for these bridges—it was State politicians who neglected them, IMO.
Ah yes. Just as these people found “faith” after the ‘04 election, now they’re into “infrastructure” after decades of transfer payments to the welfare state.
Amen. The fact that it was an Interstate Highway bridge may allow for some federal funding but the bottom line is somebody knew the bridge had structural deficiencies and they still decided to put lipstick on the pig.
Which says to anyone NOT in Washington DC
(Bend over here it comes again)
or I am going to tax you till it hurts me.
Which says to anyone NOT in Washington DC
(Bend over here it comes again)
or I am going to tax you till it hurts me.
feds should end welfare permanently and expect everyone to work.
Senator Schumer is a complete idiot. There is no need to expand bridge maintenance funding when the funding is there already. What need to happen is that local governments need to take some time away from their pandering to the unions and worry less about getting reelected. The time could be spent applying for the existing funds that go unclaimed each year.
A Democrat will never miss an opportunity to exploit tragedy to expand government.
never get in the way of this a-hole and a tv camera....
every issue on every topic...he immediately calls for the federal govt. to spend more money...
never says how to get this money....
oy yeah...he is lib/dem...he wants more taxes!!!
That sucker’s been busy.
Makes me think of side by side pix of that and Schumer, with a Separated at Birth caption.
In this case, let’s look at some related issues: Infrastructure costs money, lots of it, but infrastructure is NOT built with money.
The employment rate is 95% in this country, so the unemployed 5% are going to do the construction? In construction projects, domestic and international, we have skilled labor shortages for welders, electricians, heavy equipment operators, etc. We are “importing” skilled laborers to rebuild after Katrina, and to work oil and gas refinery and pipeline projects. Additionally, the world’s steel mills are booked for the next two years, when you can even get a order placed. The MSM and politicians blame GWB,but it is not his fault and if Iraqi war had not happened, the tax money would not have been spent on infrastructure, regardless of which party holds congress or the Whiter House.
once again schmuckie proves he is the worst senator in U.S. history.
The Democrats’ lack of concern about infrastructure is illustrated not just by the NYC bridge situation, but also the dikes/levees of New Orleans. In each case, they’ve had it all, controlled the government for decades, yet did nothing.
Then when something happens, they play their childish little blame games. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
They act more and more like spoiled brat children every freakin’ day.
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