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

[WillowTree]

We all pay taxes on the gasoline we buy. Wtf are the states and feds doing with that money? It is supposed to be used for roads and bridges right?

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Clinton x 8 years, Obama’s x 8 years! Infrastructure?

Hello? Do nothing Congress? Esp. with Obama..after his first two years--that was that. Blame aside..Trump could have kept the deal..and that is right now.

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!

What a pile of bullshit that post is. Republicans have thwarted every attempt at infrastructure, kicking the can over to states which are increasingly Red States where the libertarian wing of the party refuses to pass taxes to pay for infrastructure. The result is a complete failure by either party to do infrastructure repairs or improvements.

Worse, they’ve left it up to the free market. If ABC Company needs a bridge built to their facility, the state/municipality would say “Let them build it”. ABC would say “This is what we pay taxes for!” And they’d be correct in that regard. But in the end, nobody builds the bridge.

Trump is proposing that businesses partner with government for infrastructure improvements for extra tax credits. No economist in their right mind will endorse the scheme which allows the corporation to get a tax credit for building infrastructure, and deductions for materials and labour, meaning that the company gets to double dip on the costs of providing the improvements.

Oh, and the company gets to pick and chose what infrastructure is to be repaired/replaced. Any pet projects which aid the company, like ABC’s aforementioned bridge, would be eligible even if the project only benefits ABC.

Your first sentence has the wrong word choice. It should have said:, "What a pile of bullshit this post is."

How you threw together that concocted mishmash of manure is beyond comprehension. It makes no sense.

 

[The Irish Ram]

Bet we could have built a rockin tunnel with the plane loads of our money that Obama kept flying into his pet project, Iran.

 

[2aguy]

Wait a minute, Bill Clinton was president after Reagan. What did he do besides grope Monica under the desk, sell nuclear technology to N.K. and bomb freaking Europe? What did democrats address when they gained the majority half way into George Bush's 2nd term? The economy, infrastructure, foreign policy? Nope, they undertook a McCarthy like tribunal about ....wait for it.....steroid use in baseball. Barry Hussein promised to "wean America off fossil fuel" so we wouldn't need infrastructure while we were riding bicycles and horses like other 3rd world countries. President Trump reduced unemployment to a near twenty year low, brought jobs back to America and promised to fix the infrastructure but the crazy and angry left isn't listening as usual.

8 years of clinton...and didn't obama get 1 trillion dollars for "shovel ready" jobs...you know..infrastructure?

This doofus who started this thread thinks that having given these same politicians our tax money, they then spent us into 20 trillion dollars in debt and obviously didn't spend it on infrastructure...this doofus thinks that giving them even more money will get them to do what they didn't do with all of the rest of the money we gave them......he is really, really stupid...

 

[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.

Disagree , Both parties are taking down the road to globalism, the only difference is the speed in which it will happen.

Globalism is simply the natural tendency of companies to send their manual labor to the cheapest countries. The question is when do we start investing in our labor force and train them for the technical jobs that are now going begging three to six million of them. Congratulations on the GOP for blocking such an investment, all to save their greedy idiot brainwashing billionaires, dupe.

 

[Desperado]

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.

Disagree , Both parties are taking down the road to globalism, the only difference is the speed in which it will happen.

Globalism is simply the natural tendency of companies to send their manual labor to the cheapest countries. The question is when do we start investing in our labor force and train them for the technical jobs that are now going begging three to six million of them. Congratulations on the GOP for blocking such an investment, all to save their greedy idiot brainwashing billionaires, dupe.

Listen if the GOP had blocked the investment for 40 years, they deserve Congratulations.
If you cannot see the fingerprints of both parties on this you are blind.

 

[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.

Disagree , Both parties are taking down the road to globalism, the only difference is the speed in which it will happen.

Globalism is simply the natural tendency of companies to send their manual labor to the cheapest countries. The question is when do we start investing in our labor force and train them for the technical jobs that are now going begging three to six million of them. Congratulations on the GOP for blocking such an investment, all to save their greedy idiot brainwashing billionaires, dupe.

Listen if the GOP had blocked the investment for 40 years, they deserve Congratulations.
If you cannot see the fingerprints of both parties on this you are blind.

Obama tried to pass such investment in infrastructure and our people, and the GOP blocked them. You are a brainwashed functional moron. United States always invested 1% in infrastructure, under Reagan 0.5% so don't be surprised when your water and sewer Mains blow up and you get a sinkhole on I-95 LOL. So dumb, the world's stupidest voters, GOP dupes.

 

[danielpalos]

We all pay taxes on the gasoline we buy. Wtf are the states and feds doing with that money? It is supposed to be used for roads and bridges right?

What is paying for our alleged wars on crime, drugs, and terror?

 

[danielpalos]

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.

Disagree , Both parties are taking down the road to globalism, the only difference is the speed in which it will happen.

Globalism is simply the natural tendency of companies to send their manual labor to the cheapest countries. The question is when do we start investing in our labor force and train them for the technical jobs that are now going begging three to six million of them. Congratulations on the GOP for blocking such an investment, all to save their greedy idiot brainwashing billionaires, dupe.

Listen if the GOP had blocked the investment for 40 years, they deserve Congratulations.
If you cannot see the fingerprints of both parties on this you are blind.

Obama tried to pass such investment in infrastructure and our people, and the GOP blocked them. You are a brainwashed functional moron. United States always invested 1% in infrastructure, under Reagan 0.5% so don't be surprised when your water and sewer Mains blow up and you get a sinkhole on I-95 LOL. So dumb, the world's stupidest voters, GOP dupes.

I guess we know what happened to those, "shovel ready jobs". They got, "nothing but repealed".

 

[Desperado]

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.

Disagree , Both parties are taking down the road to globalism, the only difference is the speed in which it will happen.

Globalism is simply the natural tendency of companies to send their manual labor to the cheapest countries. The question is when do we start investing in our labor force and train them for the technical jobs that are now going begging three to six million of them. Congratulations on the GOP for blocking such an investment, all to save their greedy idiot brainwashing billionaires, dupe.

Listen if the GOP had blocked the investment for 40 years, they deserve Congratulations.
If you cannot see the fingerprints of both parties on this you are blind.

Obama tried to pass such investment in infrastructure and our people, and the GOP blocked them. You are a brainwashed functional moron. United States always invested 1% in infrastructure, under Reagan 0.5% so don't be surprised when your water and sewer Mains blow up and you get a sinkhole on I-95 LOL. So dumb, the world's stupidest voters, GOP dupes.

You are so confused. Water and sewer are the responsibility of the locals not the fed, Also the States own and operate the Interstate highways so again it would not be the Feds you call for a pothole on I95
Interstate Frequently Asked Questions - 50th Anniversary - Interstate System - Highway History - Federal Highway Administration

 

[danielpalos]

Except they want different things, dupe.

Disagree , Both parties are taking down the road to globalism, the only difference is the speed in which it will happen.

Globalism is simply the natural tendency of companies to send their manual labor to the cheapest countries. The question is when do we start investing in our labor force and train them for the technical jobs that are now going begging three to six million of them. Congratulations on the GOP for blocking such an investment, all to save their greedy idiot brainwashing billionaires, dupe.

Listen if the GOP had blocked the investment for 40 years, they deserve Congratulations.
If you cannot see the fingerprints of both parties on this you are blind.

Obama tried to pass such investment in infrastructure and our people, and the GOP blocked them. You are a brainwashed functional moron. United States always invested 1% in infrastructure, under Reagan 0.5% so don't be surprised when your water and sewer Mains blow up and you get a sinkhole on I-95 LOL. So dumb, the world's stupidest voters, GOP dupes.

You are so confused. Water and sewer are the responsibility of the locals not the fed, Also the States own and operate the Interstate highways so again it would not be the Feds you call for a pothole on I95
Interstate Frequently Asked Questions - 50th Anniversary - Interstate System - Highway History - Federal Highway Administration

States may rely on block funding.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

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.

Why should I in Nevada pay for a new rail tunnel in New York and New Jersey? Let them pay for it themselves. They have all that massive taxation, so they should have plenty of money.

 

[francoHFW]

Except they want different things, dupe.

Disagree , Both parties are taking down the road to globalism, the only difference is the speed in which it will happen.

Globalism is simply the natural tendency of companies to send their manual labor to the cheapest countries. The question is when do we start investing in our labor force and train them for the technical jobs that are now going begging three to six million of them. Congratulations on the GOP for blocking such an investment, all to save their greedy idiot brainwashing billionaires, dupe.

Listen if the GOP had blocked the investment for 40 years, they deserve Congratulations.
If you cannot see the fingerprints of both parties on this you are blind.

Obama tried to pass such investment in infrastructure and our people, and the GOP blocked them. You are a brainwashed functional moron. United States always invested 1% in infrastructure, under Reagan 0.5% so don't be surprised when your water and sewer Mains blow up and you get a sinkhole on I-95 LOL. So dumb, the world's stupidest voters, GOP dupes.

I guess we know what happened to those, "shovel ready jobs". They got, "nothing but repealed".

There were 240 billion dollars worth of infrastructure jobs and it did exactly what it was supposed to. It lasted longer than it was planned and that helped and that helped.

 

[imawhosure]

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

I am not even going to read this red herring of a thread.

Who controlled both chambers of congress, and the Whitehouse, at the start of the Obama Presidency?

YOU are a whiny, phony-baloney of a Leftist, who blames other people for EVERYTHING.

Now, if you don't have one, go get a freakin job. If you do have a job, let us know where it is, so we can get you FIRED!

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

There were 240 billion dollars worth of infrastructure jobs and it did exactly what it was supposed to.

Like what exactly?

$240 billion spent and yet we're told our infrastructure is still crumbling?

 

[hadit]

Wait a minute, Bill Clinton was president after Reagan. What did he do besides grope Monica under the desk, sell nuclear technology to N.K. and bomb freaking Europe? What did democrats address when they gained the majority half way into George Bush's 2nd term? The economy, infrastructure, foreign policy? Nope, they undertook a McCarthy like tribunal about ....wait for it.....steroid use in baseball. Barry Hussein promised to "wean America off fossil fuel" so we wouldn't need infrastructure while we were riding bicycles and horses like other 3rd world countries. President Trump reduced unemployment to a near twenty year low, brought jobs back to America and promised to fix the infrastructure but the crazy and angry left isn't listening as usual.

Now, now, you know perfectly well that democrats are weak, helpless creatures that simply cannot counter anything a Republican wants to do. If there is even so much as one elected Republican in office, they can't do anything at all.

 

[PredFan]

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

So the GOP has been in charge for 40 years? How fucking stupid are you?

 

[francoHFW]

There were 240 billion dollars worth of infrastructure jobs and it did exactly what it was supposed to.

Like what exactly?

$240 billion spent and yet we're told our infrastructure is still crumbling?

We need trillions spent on our infrastructure d u h.... 35 years spending half as much as we should on it.. great job GOP.

 

[danielpalos]

There were 240 billion dollars worth of infrastructure jobs and it did exactly what it was supposed to.

Like what exactly?

$240 billion spent and yet we're told our infrastructure is still crumbling?

It is expensive. And, we still have Puerto Rico.

 

[francoHFW]

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

So the GOP has been in charge for 40 years? How fucking stupid are you?

Before Reagan the top tax rate was 70%, since Reagan 39% at most. He even left us with 28%... The GOP loves the status quo and have blocked everything to change it.