Minneapolis Blues

The New York Times wrote this today:

A steam pipe explodes near Grant Central Terminal, a levee fails and floods New Orleans, a bridge collapses in Minneapolis.

These disasters are an indication that this country is not investing enough in keeping its vital infrastructure in good repair, engineering experts warn.

Without hyperbole, I think it's fair to say that the flooded 9th ward and the collapse of 35-W are the consequences of twenty-five years of predominantly Republican rule. This is the outcome of the work they've done to convince the American citizenry that our taxes fund Maplethorpes and Tinky-Winkies rather than levies and bridges. This is what happens when you paint liberals as gullible wimps with absurd ideas about our civic interdependence.

"Government" is not just something into which we dump money and with whom we file bureaucratic paperwork. Government builds and repairs the highways that allow you to, for example, live in the suburbs and still take advantage of city services. We probably don't often think of highways as publicly funded programs for the common good, but that's what they are, and even more so, I would hazard a guess that they are disproportionately utilized by corporations and the middle/upper classes.

The same Times article says that the Federal Highway Administration issued a report last year that rates over 25% of highway bridges as either “structurally deficient" or “functionally obsolete." This is a problem that could use some federal money, too much of which is currently routed to Haliburton and other no-bid military contractors. (I lived in Boston during the Big Dig, so I'm familiar with how much graft and budget-swelling happens in domestic construction, and yet I seem to remember balanced federal budgets in those years...)

This should be a major talking point for Democrats in upcoming debates.

Here's three things you can do to assure bridges stop falling down:

1. Bring the boys back home.
2. Vote for Democrats. Even pork barrel Democrats. Because at least they'll spend money in their districts.
3. Make peace with higher taxes for upper classes, but demand accountability for how the money is spent.

A discussion of road welfare may even lead into valuable discussions on mass transit, "white flight," and public schooling.

Someone might even suggest that we probably have the technology now to create a sliding scale toll system based on usage (if not ability to pay), such that Wal-mart and other trucking-based corporations pay more for our highways than, say, little old me. It's an idea, anyway...