Posted on 12/18/2008 10:13:53 AM PST by NormsRevenge
America has failed to invest in its infrastructure for the past 50 years, and the bill is coming due. The situation is reminiscent of the ancient Roman Empire, which grew strong because of its advanced aqueduct system, but which fell into decline when that feat of engineering tumbled into disrepair. We're in danger of repeating that history, but it's not too late to fix the problem if we take decisive action now.
That's why Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and I formed Building America's Future earlier this year. Long before any of us realized we were in a recession, the three of us—a Republican, Democrat and an Independent—understood that America needs a large-scale, immediate investment in our nation's roads, schools, parks, hospitals, waterways, ports and more. We are extremely pleased to have heard President-elect Barack Obama pledge to do just that as part of his economic recovery plan. ...
Our infrastructure is more than just a quality-of-life issue. It is an economic issue. Americans waste billions of dollars while semi-trucks carry goods on gridlocked roads and lose millions of gallons of water in leaky old pipes. We lose time and dollars because our ports are not computerized or modern enough to meet today's demands. Our businesses lose real dollars because our buildings are not energy efficient. ... In short, we are a dinosaur economy trying to compete in a space-age global environment.
--snip--
None of this makes sense in America. It doesn't make sense that in the greatest country on Earth we still rely on trains that go the same speed as they did 100 years ago, so our shipping times and commutes are longer than other countries. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
The Chief Socialist of Kalifornia has spoken!
Did it just get a couple of degrees warmer from all the host air or is it just me?
Rush discussed this today.
The Gubamint is the last damn entity that should be spending money it doesn’t have about now.
Between all the bail-outs and economic stimulus packages, what has it bought us?
I know what it has covered up. The gross incompetence of public high officials in Washington DC and the looting of the Treasury that is ongoing while politicos play their violins and pose for the media... the very same media and the very same politicos that brought us to this higher plane of pain in the first place.
I see no problem with infrastructure spending if it is done correctly and is a value added.
I think Obama’s plan though is incredibly dumb
Hello Ahhhneld?
Ever hear of the Interstate Highway System?
ML/NJ
I'm so sick and tired of hearing this bs propoganda that I could scream. How the hell does Ahnold the incompetent think that the hundreds of billions of dollars in new bridges, tunnels, overpasses and highway miles that have been built in the US in the last 50 years got there if all we've been doing is neglecting our infrastructure!?!? I drive to work on highway lanes that weren't there 10 years ago and I go home via a flyover that wasn't there 10 years ago...where did they come from?
Arnold is as dumb as a box of rocks. This infrastructure spending will in the end turn out to be mostly pork.
I’m starting to hate liberal Republicans 100 times more than liberal democrats.
You build infrastructure as you need it. We have a new four lane project locally, it's nearly empty now, waiting for the tourists to show up ... LOL.
Case in point, the Internet bubble built out so much fiber that a whole lot of it may never be used.
someone please take the R from his name please!
I wonder what the environmental types think of Arnold’s build, build, build ideas....
Arnold should read about the results of all those public works projects during the Great Depression. Unemployment was still at nearly 20% in 1938 and the only thing that ended the Depression was WW-II.
Agreed. Much of the interstate system is due for replacing as evidenced by the Minnesota Bridge failure. Nothing lasts forever no matter how well maintained.
Well, the government keeps the books, so you know, because they will tell you, it's done well and 'someday' will 'pay for its self.'
The Keynesian Big Lie.
Borrowing more to solve the debt crisis? Crazy!
The Bridge did not fail.
It did what it did for decades.
Was it, at high cost, engineered wrong by the government? Yes.
Was it noticeably failing, for a decade, even to casual inspection by the government? Yes.
Was it modified at great expense by the government? Yes.
So basically we had this high cost, high maintenance, critical equipment built and maintained poorly, and we should have the bureaucratic, high cost, poor quality, shot life, high maintenance organ, aka the government, do more?
Y
In the past 5 years, we have spent $483B in ‘infrastructure’.
If this ‘plan’ goes through, buy stock in companies that do the ‘engineering’ for these projects. (If it’s not too late, they’ve gone up 71%)
Keynesian works because the government gets to steal from everybody, a penny or a dollar at a time, and it gets to call its theft ‘inflation’, which is some sort of bad juju thing that just happens, magically, and isn’t the government like a rat in the night stealing from every pocket, 24/7, 365.
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