Tag: infrastructure

Biden’s Infrastructure Plan is Worth the Money

By Stephen Macaulay

The situation in the U.S. has largely been one where putting things off seems like the most cost-effective course. The operative word there is seems.

Yes, it may not be economical to, say, have a stockpile of medical ventilators or a warehouse full of N-95 masks, but then a pandemic hits and suddenly there is a lot of finger pointing while people die. Clearly, medical equipment and supplies that are not being used represents inventory that isn’t making anyone any money, but what are the economic impacts of having to suddenly source these products, both from the standpoint of the effects on those who need it and don’t have it (people dying in hospitals because the ventilators weren’t there; doctors and nurses getting sick because they don’t have sufficient PPE) and that of paying a premium for the available product?

Then there is infrastructure. Go to Japan, go to Germany, spend some time in the airports, spend some time driving on the roadways, and you’ll know that while people may chant “We’re number one!” evidence in plain sight will tell you that when it comes to infrastructure, we are anything but.

According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) in the U.S. there are 46,100 “structurally deficient” bridges. The ARTBA — which, obviously, has a vested interest in getting bridges built or fixed, so take a grain of salt and reduce that number by 10% and you’re still at 41,490 — estimates that this represents about one in three bridges and that it would take 50 years to fix all of those that require work. As for the states that require the most repair, the top five are Rhode Island at number one, followed by West Virginia (if Sen. Joe Manchin isn’t all over this, then there’s something wrong), Iowa, South Dakota and Pennsylvania. 

One would imagine that the politicians in those states would be more agitated by the crumbling state of their bridges — and let’s not forget that when bridges collapse, people can die — than they are the results of the last presidential election. But look at the list and consider what the concerns apparently are.

Of course, there is a concern for paying the infrastructure bill. But here’s the thing: everyone knows (or ought to know, were it that many of them would prefer to think that things are just fine until they aren’t) that there is a whole lot that needs to be fixed or added to the U.S. infrastructure, whether it is rebar in roads or fiber optic cables to provide high-speed Internet to rural communities. Water supplies. Utilities. Medical facilities. Roads.

While there is a reasonable concern that there will be monies wasted — in fact, it should be a foregone conclusion that there will be — at the end of the day there will be something tangible as a result. When the bridge collapses and people die, there is a rush to rebuild. The people are still dead. And the monies still get wasted.

Seems like a very false economy.

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It’s Time for Infrastructure, Not for Corporate Tax Hikes

By Bryan Williams

So what is a Republican not to like about infrastructure? You know, spending our tax-payer dollars on things that benefit all of us instead of, say, the harder-to-see societal gains that $2 billion a year in aid to Israel or the $6 million each for an anti-radiation guided missile attached to an Air Force bomber brings. As with previous fits and starts to infrastructure bills, this one seems no different. The center column tells of Trump’s own infrastructure plan that would have cost nearly as much as Biden’s. It has been touted for years now – at least the past three to four election cycles – that “infrastructure should be the one thing both parties can agree on.”  And yet … here we are in 2021 still trying to get it done.

I see this latest effort as kind of ho-hum. This country has sustained three rounds of massively expensive COVID-19 stimulus bills, each in the trillions – with a t—of dollars, and the fiscal sky has not fallen. And yeah, I used to be right with (former) Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, and other fiscal hawks who said our children will end up paying for our profligacy. I remember hearing that in the ‘90s when I was a kid. Sure the national debt has gone up a lot, but the United States is still considered the most powerful nation in the world. We have the most advanced, most powerful military, and we just landed our fourth rover on another planet, this time with a miniature helicopter on board to fly around Mars. So yeah, the argument that all this debt will hamstring our society rings a little hollow.

The one thing that grinds my gears are the taxes Biden wants to raise on corporations after three short years of the new, low rate that has finally made America competitive with the rest of the world. Businesses like stability, right? Why raise their taxes when they are just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel after a year of pandemic shutdowns? Seems like a bad idea to raise taxes on the companies that will be hiring all of us back.

And why does it all have to be in one massive omnibus bill? Haven’t we all become tired of these huge tomes that become “law?”  Remember the words, “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it [because it’s too big to read],” when the Affordable Care Act was being negotiated? Reminds me of Michael Scott (Steve Carell) from The Office. When asked if he ever read Lee Iacocca’s book, “Talking Straight,” he answered, “Read it? I own it! But no, I have not read it.”  Let’s break this bill up into its constituent parts so the general public, as well as congressmembers and their staff have time to read all its components, and even understand it. One bill for roads, one bill for broadband, etc. This may slow down the process, but hey, we’ve waited this long, right?

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