Republicans 40 Year Refusal To Invest In Infrastructure Begins To Cripple US Economy

[EvilEyeFleegle]

As for which side deals with our money better?

One just gave us more of it back for US to spend...

The other thinks we shouldn't get that money...that THEY know how to spend it better than we do!

He gave with one hand..and will take later with two. The tax cuts expire for individuals.
We got some scraps..for a while--the corporations got the meat..and they got it forever.

 

[MarathonMike]

Infrastructure has never been sexy for either party so it has been the proverbial can kicked down the pothole filled road. Let's start with the bridges that are hanging on by a few rusty bolts and go from there.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Infrastructure has never been sexy for either party so it has been the proverbial can kicked down the pothole filled road. Let's start with the bridges that are hanging on by a few rusty bolts and go from there.

Not the federal government's problem.

 

[FA_Q2]

Come again?

The 70-Year Trend in Federal Infrastructure Spending - The Eno Center for Transportation


Trying to make this a partisan issue is asinine in the extreme. Infrastructure spending in general has been rather flat over those 40 years no matter who has been in power. Clearly the 'republicans' are not refusing anything that the democrats are also not refusing to do.

 

[regent]

The pattern has been something like this:
Republicans are elected and their job seems to be to start a recession. Then Democrats are elected to stop the recession and they do this by spending money on improving the infrastructure.
At least that been the pattern America has followed since the Great Depression.

 

[Oldstyle]

As for which side deals with our money better?

One just gave us more of it back for US to spend...

The other thinks we shouldn't get that money...that THEY know how to spend it better than we do!

He gave with one hand..and will take later with two. The tax cuts expire for individuals.
We got some scraps..for a while--the corporations got the meat..and they got it forever.

Oh, so the tax rates that were passed last forever? Really? Did we start passing a new type of legislation I don't know about?

 

[Oldstyle]

So you admit that for the first two years of the Obama Administration, Democrats controlled the White House and Congress? Will you also admit that they had a HUGE stimulus fund to work with? So why didn't they fix infrastructure then?

If you'll recall, Nancy Pelosi and Barry promised that their stimulus would create hundreds of thousands of "shovel ready jobs"! If you'll also recall...they handled that stimulus so badly that most of that money was spent on keeping their supporters in the public sector employed.

Well, there was this thing called a recession? Some even called The "Great Recession'? There was a lot going on..and many things that needed fixes. Apparently they got it right..since the economy that Trump inherited seems to be doing well.

Infrastructure has been one of those things promised by both parties and kicked down the road for a long time..we can continue to go back into the past to assign blame..or we can move forward. Trump has an infrastructure bill--let's see what is in it. But there seems to be a lot of petty 'pay the Blue States back' stuff going on. If it continues..the bill will stall--a true bipartisan effort is required..Trump has yet to show he has those kind of chops.

Midterms are coming--after that..it is very likely that gridlock will rule--unless a precedent for bipartisan cooperation has been set.

I'm not optimistic.

Ah, dude? If they got it "right"...then they wouldn't have had to use "jobs created or saved" to hide how few jobs their stimulus actually created! The fact is...your guy Obama oversaw the worst recovery from a US recession in modern economic history. Do you know how you can tell? They had one increase in the Fed rate from the time Barry got elected until when Trump got elected. Why? Because the economy was so shaky. Since Trump was elected we've had 3 increases to the Fed's interest rate with another one due shortly!

"Infrastructure" has become the far left's clarion call for more money to be siphoned out of the private sector and funneled through government...which means more money for them to give out as they see fit. You HAD the money to do serious infrastructure improvements but you squandered it. You had gasoline tax dollars for decades that were supposed to go to repairing our highways but politicians on both sides used THAT for other things as well! You liberals don't want to fix infrastructure...you simply want a bigger slush fund to play with so you can do more give-a-ways to buy more votes! It's what you do...it's who you are!

Lol..Obama was never 'my guy'--I do think he had more sense than Trump..but the bar is pretty low in that respect. Infrastructure has been the tool of both parties...but it does not have to be. I'm not a lib..call me a lapsed Republican, I guess. I usually just say Independent, these days. I voted against Obama twice. My car still has a Romney sticker on it.
I'm against everything Trump and the Alt/right stand for..and as the Republicans have seen fit to roll with him..they can do without me.

Slush funds is it? Games with the taxpayer money? When I see either side deal honestly with our money--I'll know pigs are now equipped with wings.

I'm amused by the notion held by so many of you on the left that Trump is "Alt/right"! He's a Rockefeller Republican! Romney was further right than Trump is!

I agree..is not his political position I find abhorrent..but rather his use of the alt/right to get elected--his divisive tactics, his incessant lying, his self-serving narcissistic tweets and his willful ignorance of the world around him. I think him incompetent. But he is the one we elected..so he is what we have to work with. I just wish that we could get a populist President who is not a buffoon.

The Republican party as a whole has decided to go with the Alt/right..which is why we parted company. They have no room for moderates. Neither do the Democrats..

You think Trump is "incompetent" yet he's been able to get tax reform passed and the individual mandate repealed? He's had two quarters in a row of growth over 3%? Funny sort of incompetency! Incompetent...yet gets the job done?

 

[Oldstyle]

As for the Republican Party? We elect moderates. We have done so for decades! It's the Democrats that elect people on the far left side of the political spectrum...yet you seem to think the GOP has gone "Alt/Right"?

 

[blackhawk]

Shovel ready jobs enough said.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

As for which side deals with our money better?

One just gave us more of it back for US to spend...

The other thinks we shouldn't get that money...that THEY know how to spend it better than we do!

He gave with one hand..and will take later with two. The tax cuts expire for individuals.
We got some scraps..for a while--the corporations got the meat..and they got it forever.

Oh, so the tax rates that were passed last forever? Really? Did we start passing a new type of legislation I don't know about?

Don't be ingenuous, it doesn't suit you..you know what I meant. Nothing is forever..I know..and sometime in the future the rates will be adjusted again--but the individual cuts WILL expire--and the corporate ones do not.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

As for the Republican Party? We elect moderates. We have done so for decades! It's the Democrats that elect people on the far left side of the political spectrum...yet you seem to think the GOP has gone "Alt/Right"?

You believe that Clinton was far left? Carter? Even Obama was not as far left as he was portrayed--to the dismay of the Progressive wing of the Democratic party. He talked a good game..to get elected--but his actions..or lack of them--said otherwise. Not that I was an Obama fan--but calling him a Marxist was always amusing, to me.

I do think that the GOP has gone alt/right--at least as far as rhetoric goes. They all want Trump's base...and think they know what is needed to get them.

Both parties are being run by the extremists---I think that this is the heart of the problem.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Shovel ready jobs enough said.

A phrase I've heard many times in my life..by both parties. Almost always a lie--or a promise that everyone knew was bogus. Kind of like saying that one could stop the outsourcing of American jobs.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

As for which side deals with our money better?

One just gave us more of it back for US to spend...

The other thinks we shouldn't get that money...that THEY know how to spend it better than we do!

He gave with one hand..and will take later with two. The tax cuts expire for individuals.
We got some scraps..for a while--the corporations got the meat..and they got it forever.

Oh, so the tax rates that were passed last forever? Really? Did we start passing a new type of legislation I don't know about?

Don't be ingenuous, it doesn't suit you..you know what I meant. Nothing is forever..I know..and sometime in the future the rates will be adjusted again--but the individual cuts WILL expire--and the corporate ones do not.

 

[Rustic]

The ideological blinders that have guided the Republican party since the Reagan administration are slowly but surely crippling our economy. One area where that is most evident is in our transportation infrastructure where the Republican refusal to consider any federal investment as valid has led to the deterioration of the very pathways that fuel our economy.

In one of its last acts of stupidity for 2017, the Trump administration has cancelled the agreement that the federal government had with the states of New York and New Jersey to not only restore the badly damaged rail tunnels between those two states but also build a new, third tunnel as well to relieve the congestion at that critical rail hub. The agreement meant that the federal government would split the cost of that project with the two states.

This is the second time an agreement to restore this important rail link and the busiest transit hub in the entire country has been sabotaged by Republicans. In 2010, then New Jersey Governor Chris Christie backed out of a similar project, saying the state could not afford it. Instead, he funneled the money saved into the state’s own dwindling transportation so he would not have to raise the state’s gas tax and position himself for a presidential run.

Amtrak estimates that the two existing tunnels have less than 15 years left before they totally breakdown and there is no guarantee that one or both of these salt-ravaged tunnels might fail earlier. It is estimated that if just one tunnel failed, it would slow rail traffic through the Northeast by 75% and create a regional economic crisis.

The truly sick part of all this is that, if Christie had gone ahead with the plan in 2010, there was a possibility that the new tunnel would be coming into service this year. Instead, it will be another decade before this restoration project will be completed, if at all. It is thought that this current cancellation may be yet another political ploy by Trump and the Republicans and that this will be folded into the so-far mythical Trump infrastructure plan in order to woo Democratic votes. But even that might be a tough sell if Trump’s plan is just another corporate giveaway in the form of public-private partnerships.

This isn’t the only major rail project that the Trump administration has kiboshed. In July, the federal government backed out of an agreement with the state of Maryland and the rail company CSX to raise the height of the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore in order to allow double-stacked rail cars to easily access the Port of Baltimore. Double-stacked rail cars comprise over 75% of intermodal rail traffic in the country and this will only increase in the future. This will be especially true on the East Coast in both Baltimore and New York as shipping traffic from Asia increases with the opening of the expanded Panama Canal.

This refusal to recognize any valid investment by the federal government, which Republican have engaged in since the Reagan administration, has led to the slow but steady erosion of our transportation infrastructure, which was once the envy of the world. And that erosion will soon begin to cripple this country economically.

Republicans’ 40 Year Refusal To Invest In Infrastructure Begins to Cripple US Economy

Socialism cannot exist underneath it’s on weight...

 

[ThunderKiss1965]

The railways in this country are privately owned

 

[FA_Q2]

The pattern has been something like this:
Republicans are elected and their job seems to be to start a recession. Then Democrats are elected to stop the recession and they do this by spending money on improving the infrastructure.
At least that been the pattern America has followed since the Great Depression.

That's what the talking points and rhetoric has been from the democrats.

The facts tell another story...

 

[francoHFW]

40 years?

The Republicans have held Congress for the last 40 years?

The Democrats haven't been able to pass anything for 40 years 35 well. Carter had Teddy Kennedy to block everything under him...

 

[FA_Q2]

As for the Republican Party? We elect moderates. We have done so for decades! It's the Democrats that elect people on the far left side of the political spectrum...yet you seem to think the GOP has gone "Alt/Right"?

You believe that Clinton was far left? Carter? Even Obama was not as far left as he was portrayed--to the dismay of the Progressive wing of the Democratic party. He talked a good game..to get elected--but his actions..or lack of them--said otherwise. Not that I was an Obama fan--but calling him a Marxist was always amusing, to me.

I do think that the GOP has gone alt/right--at least as far as rhetoric goes. They all want Trump's base...and think they know what is needed to get them.

Both parties are being run by the extremists---I think that this is the heart of the problem.

The rhetoric follows the extremes - the actual actions not so much. Just as you see Obama and Clinton not being on the left - Bush was nowhere near the republican ideals.

 

[francoHFW]

Wow I did not realize that the Republicans controlled the house, the senate and the presidentcy for the last 40 years!
One might consider the lack of progress on US infrastucture as proof that the two parties are the flip side of the same coin.

Except they want different things, dupe.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

As for which side deals with our money better?

One just gave us more of it back for US to spend...

The other thinks we shouldn't get that money...that THEY know how to spend it better than we do!

He gave with one hand..and will take later with two. The tax cuts expire for individuals.
We got some scraps..for a while--the corporations got the meat..and they got it forever.

Oh, so the tax rates that were passed last forever? Really? Did we start passing a new type of legislation I don't know about?

Don't be ingenuous, it doesn't suit you..you know what I meant. Nothing is forever..I know..and sometime in the future the rates will be adjusted again--but the individual cuts WILL expire--and the corporate ones do not.

Really? Is pretty well known--but if you need one:

Enjoy your tax cuts while they last

"But here's the thing: After 2025, all individual tax cuts are set to expire. At the same time, corporate rate cuts are made permanent under the bill.

As a result, by 2027 a large majority of people making less than $200,000 will either see little change in their tax bill or a tax increase relative to what they pay today, the JCT estimates.

Related: Try the CNN tax calculator to see how you may fare under GOP bill

Republicans made individual tax cuts temporary so they could meet budget rules that let them pass their tax overhaul with no Democratic votes.

But don't worry, they say. A future Congress won't let middle class tax cuts expire. Recent precedents -- like the oft-extended Bush tax cuts -- suggest they may be right. Still, there's zero guarantee of that. After all, a lot can change over eight years.

In any case, there's another reason you could end up with a tax increase after 2025.

While the cuts are temporary, the GOP tax bill makes permanent another key provision that tax expert Lily Batchelder has described as a "stealth tax increase" for individuals, the effects of which will grow over time.

The money it will raise is a big reason why the cost of the permanent corporate tax cuts will be paid for in the second decade, according to Batchelder, a tax law professor at New York University."