Bridges
If you ever listen to Rachel Maddow, you know about her harping on the sort of neglected issue of the decay of our national infrastucture — The Council of Civil Engineers gives America a low grade for the situation; European media has taken note of it more so than American media has, and it is not a topic that lends itself to fiery discussion — even though it is basically the nuts and bolts business of government.
… That which makes John Quincy Adams an underrated president, and Andrew Jackson an overly romanticized figure…
So, in the wake of the giant explosion in New York City, you look back and see that Rudy Giuliani’s insistence on annual tax cuts trimmed budgets in this area — suggesting future geiser explosions. In the wake of yesterday’s Minnesota bridge collapse, we note that the Minnesota legislator kept passing increased budgets to allow for bridge repair, but was vetoed by Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Read this news item of the issues in a special election in Minnesota very closely, and there isn’t a doubt which side of that issue — Gas tax for road repair versus not — just received a major boost — regrettably due to an unhappy accident.
I tend to be weary of taking these major news stories and harping for political points, but there is no other around it — policy decisions lead to real world consequences. But the problem on a national level is that the budget is pretty well diverted unevenly to those with the plum chairman assignment, arrived at largely through Seniority. The good news on that score is that Ted Stevens looks to be chopped off to pasture right about now, which can only really mean that the chances that the next pork-laden Transportation Bill will end up with money to an arena that repairs a choppy stretch of our national infrastructure before something like what happened in Minneota happens again is modestly improved — by dent of Ted Stevens not getting to slice himself up a huge piece of that budgetary pie.
That strikes me as entirely cynical, but I guess there is no way of getting around that analysis. I have to stare at the situation as is, and process accordingly.