Infrastructure - NOW!

[uscitizen]

Many of us still use daily infrastructure that was constructed during the WPA era.

 

[Bfgrn]

I'd love to see that done. BUT....

The eco-whackos prevent the building of bridges like the Highway 36 bridge outside of Stillwater, MN due to consideration of the 'beauty' of the area and the sake of some water fowl.

Dams flood 'protected' wetlands, not going to get them done till you stop the lawsuits and NIMBY freakouts. This is some of the crap that must be ended.

BTW, the bus shown there on the 35W bridge collapse, it's a First Student bus (a competitor of my company's). Had 40 kids on it. Only one injury... the driver. And she was injured BECAUSE she was belted in. Compressed spine. All the kids, thank God were fine. I now drive across that bridge at least once a day in my bus, and consider that every time.

BTW, more than 80% of the school buses in the Twin Cities are privately owned. Our company alone has almost 200 of them, and we're not even the biggest of the 15+ companies in the cities.

Regardless, the transportation infrastructure of this nation is one area I have no problem in government paying private contractors to build for them, and is the responsibility for the Feds and states to maintain as a public good. I do not agree that is the case with rail or air.

And that's where the president and congress should start. On the areas that can be agreed on. I don't cross a bridge without thinking about Minnesota and the number 70,000.

With this "we want him to fail" mentality, it will never happen. But it would be nice.

Well, if his goal wasn't in line with Mussolini... I'd want him to succeed.

It's all about his goals, policies and visions for this nation.

Obama's goals, policies and visions are mainstream, sound, American and patriotic. It's you Bush right wingers that are in line with Mussolini...

"O con noi o contro di noi"--You're either with us or against us.
Benito Mussolini

 

[rdean]

Congress has had the purse strings wide open for everything but actual infrastructure jobs. Now who is it that has had control in congress again?

Since Republicans got everything they wanted on Health Care reform, so much in fact Health Care companies stock went up, why don't they "promote" rebuilding America's infrastructure? Why do they want Democrats to "go it alone"?

 

[eagleseven]

Since Republicans got everything they wanted on Health Care reform

So why do they want to kill the bill?

 

[uscitizen]

Since Republicans got everything they wanted on Health Care reform

So why do they want to kill the bill?

Cause there was at least one thing in there they did not want?

 

[rdean]

Since Republicans got everything they wanted on Health Care reform

So why do they want to kill the bill?

Good question. Seven Republican Senators co-sponsored a bill, but when the bill came up for a vote, they voted against it. They want Obama to fail so bad, they vote against their own bills. Bills they originally believed would help the nation.


"This law failed by seven votes, when seven Republicans who had cosponsored the bill . . . suddenly walked away from their own proposal after I endorsed it," Obama said. "What happened?"

Obama criticizes Senate Republicans in New Hampshire speech - NYPOST.com

 

[rdean]

Since Republicans got everything they wanted on Health Care reform

So why do they want to kill the bill?

Cause there was at least one thing in there they did not want?

And that one thing was that it would look like Obama received bipartisan support. No matter how it harms the country, Republicans will not give an inch on this point. If it takes down this president, they will go down with him. Remember, Republcians could have worked on health care or infrastructure anytime during the previous 8 years and didn't.

It's not like Republcians have been hiding their intentions. When their base says, "It's to stop his "Marxist" agenda", it's because they have been programmed to believe that nonsense and they actually believe it's true. Most don't even know what "Marxist" means. It's why they use the terms, "Marxist, Communist, Fascist and Socialist" as interchangeable terms. They just sound "bad".

 

[Big Fitz]

Obama's goals, policies and visions are mainstream, sound, American and patriotic.

Nationalizing Health Care.
Nationalizing domestic auto industry
Breaking contract law
Capping private business pay
Retroactive tax increases
Retroactive law making
Deliberately inflating money supply to devalue dollar


These are mainstream goals??? These are sound???
They are madness.

 

[rdean]

Obama's goals, policies and visions are mainstream, sound, American and patriotic.

Nationalizing Health Care.
Nationalizing domestic auto industry
Breaking contract law
Capping private business pay
Retroactive tax increases
Retroactive law making
Deliberately inflating money supply to devalue dollar


These are mainstream goals??? These are sound???
They are madness.

Considering what he had to work with. Anything to plug a sinking ship.

Besides, those are exaggerations and you know it.

Republicans oversaw the writing of the new Iraqi Constitution and when the Iraqis put in the public option (Article 31), they didn't blink and eye. It could have even come from the Republicans. And don't say they had no say in the New Iraqi Constitution. We know Iraq never would have came up with 30% of parliaments seats for women on their own. They already put their women back in bags.

The auto industry is not nationalized. That's a flat out lie and you know it.

Breaking contract law? Too bad they don't break the ones Bush and the Republicans signed making us responsible for rebuilding Iraq. We could so use the money here. Thanks Republicans, you got us good.

Capping Private business pay? Your not serious. Where do you get this stuff? From a hat?

Retroactive tax increases? I don't even know what that means.

Retroactive law making? Too bad we didn't make invading other countries for fun against the law.

Deliberately inflating money supply to devalue dollar - 8 years of Republican fiscal policies already devalued the dollar.

Do Republicans take even the tiniest bit of responsibility for the mess they left the nation in? Even a "twinge"?

 

[Cold Fusion38]

Gawd you are SOOOOO right. If we don't rebuild our infrastructure we are going to be in BIG BIG trouble in a few more decades.

 

[JiggsCasey]

Dams, bridges, roads, power grid, rail, waterways. Since 2000, every system in America has fallen into disrepair. You have the dam breaking in Hawaii and the packed bridge falling during rush hour in Minnesota. Power outages. 70,000 unsafe bridges nationwide. It's only a matter of time. My advice don't live downstream from a dam.

Republicans say, "So what? It's not our job to rebuild America". I say they are wrong and it's the right thing to do.

Editorial: State dam inspections fall far behind acceptable pace

TCEQ has only seven inspectors to keep track of 7,603 dams.

The Victoria Advocate - Google News Archive Search

Dam inspections in Texas

Old U.S. dams become a multibillion-dollar threat | Homeland Security News Wire

The average age of America’s 80,000 dams is 51 years. More than 2,000 dams near population centers are in need of repair, according to statistics released this month by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.

There was little state or Federal regulation, particularly of the little dams in small watersheds, until the 1970s, when five major dam failures took hundreds of lives and caused almost $1.5 billion in damage. The Carter administration began to put safeguards in place, but the inspections continue to be carried out at the state level.

The number of high-hazard dams has increased from less than 9,000 in 2001 to more than 10,000 now

http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL31556.pdf

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, President Bush signed new
Executive Orders relating to critical infrastructure protection.
--------The problem here is that Bush only wanted to “protect”, not maintain or rebuild.

Lack of investment in municipal infrastructure upkeep has a LOT to do with peak oil reality. There are many discussions about it in the energy sub-forum.

This isn't just about greed and willful neglect, though those amplify the root cause immensely.

We are utterly broke, and only treading water (for now) due to the bailouts and stimulus package.

Heck, U.S. states are insolvent!!! Sovereign nations are insolvent!! ... Do people still believe this global crash was simply all the simultaneous result of some shady banking on Wall St. and bad home loan legislation?

Please. ... ... It goes a lot deeper than that. Literally. This is about geology.

This was all predicted by the James Kunstlers, Matt Campbells, Richard Heinbergs and Colin Campbells of the world. It's just that no one listened.

Remember that bridge in Minnesota? Expect many more similar structure failures, on an increased frequency of occurrence. Ask yourself if your snow removal in your municipality was up to standards this winter? Pot holes still lingering? How's your water pressure? Cable keep going out? ... Yeah, ours too.

Energy IS the economy. And the economy IS energy. ... Period.

 

[Big Fitz]

Considering what he had to work with. Anything to plug a sinking ship.

Yeah, let's plug holes with torpedoes.

Besides, those are exaggerations and you know it.

Really? You think so?

The government is a major owner... OWNER of GM and Chrysler. Name one corporation the government has run successfully at a profit, (for profit is the ONLY sign of success).

Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt. Doctors and hospitals are refusing to take patients on this because they aren't paid even an appropriate rate for care, causing all people who ARE paying their bills to subsidize bad government. You want to expand this to everyone and shut down private health insurance? And if you don't believe that private health insurance will survive unfair competition from the government, you're terribly delusional.

Breaking contract law? Too bad they don't break the ones Bush and the Republicans signed making us responsible for rebuilding Iraq. We could so use the money here. Thanks Republicans, you got us good.

Absolutely. You cannot tell a business they have to retroactively take away earned bonuses previously negotiated with employees without breaking it. This has NEVER been done before, and is flat out unconstitutional and criminal. How'd you like to have your dream job for your dream pay come in and tell you, BTW, the government says you can't have that contract... it's not appropriate according to congress. So instead, you get 10%. Betcha you'd have a screaming fit and threaten to sue the entire planet.

Capping Private business pay? Your not serious. Where do you get this stuff? From a hat?

The new P-BO pay czar capped executive pay at 1 million a year. So of course, executives are leaving for foreign companies to earn wages they deserve. How about we cap actor's pay and athlete's pay at 1 million a year. Not per film or season... per year. Think this shit's going to stand? Not hardly. What good has depriving an executive of their well deserved (or undeserved) pay done for you? Answer, not a damn thing unless your some schadenfreude freak who gets off on hurting others.

Retroactive tax increases? I don't even know what that means.

Then you better educate yourself quick. They're about to hit you thanks to this most recent budget. Means government went 'Homer Simpson' on you after you rode the elephant, and under the revised pricing plan, you owe another 45 bucks out of the $50 you should have paid.

Retroactive law making? Too bad we didn't make invading other countries for fun against the law.

If they did you'd have to throw every senator from that period except Russ Feingold (who should be shot for McCain-Feingold FWIW) into prison as well as Bush and Cheney. You can't make something that was previously legal, illegal in the past and prosecute. That's tyranny and unconstitutional.

Deliberately inflating money supply to devalue dollar - 8 years of Republican fiscal policies already devalued the dollar.

Since 2006, the money supply has inflated 130%. P-BO's spending is going to force the monetizing of the debt causing hyper inflation to pay it off, lest this country completely collapse from going bankrupt and defaulting on our loans. Of course, doing this is like choosing the firing squad over the noose.

You really need to educate yourself on remedial American Civics, if you don't get these basic things. Put down Rules for Radicals and the Communist Manifesto and maybe learn some Locke, Burke and founding documents.

Do Republicans take even the tiniest bit of responsibility for the mess they left the nation in? Even a "twinge"?

We fiscal conservatives are pissed as hell at Bush's bad economic policies from 2004 forward. Before that we were only slightly grumpy. W was just another big spender, just like every friggen democrat who's in congress, and half the republicans. They're all to blame for this mess.