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Well with that attitude, I can see why our infrastructure is failing.
Which is the fundamental problem in this country. Too many of the politicos in Washington are middle aged or at or near retirement age. When people start getting older than 40, they get less ambitious, more ornery, but most of all, cynical. They lived their life, so they have no reason to be ambitious. Of course someone on here is going to come along and say they aren't personally like that, but I'm talking on a macro-sociological level, not on an individual basis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimRom
You leave out the overwhelming amount of money that is spent by our government on sheer stupidity. I honestly believe that most people would have less of a problem with raising taxes if the government showed a bit of fiscal responsibility. As it stands now, raising taxes would be like putting a band-aid on an arterial wound.
You can't raise taxes on something that isn't taxed, yet. That tax needs to be created.
Happy? The bridge collapse in Washington is something President Obama has talked about long before it happened but Republicans did not want to support infrastructure development to replace our bridges. They called it Socialism!
We aren't going to survive as a competitive nation if we don't take care or replace our infrastructure.
Oh Rob how can you say such a thing? We had billions spent in the Obama bailout. Millions spent on signs that proclaimed paid for by the stimulus package.
Billions spent in foreign aid. How many bridges could have been repaired had we not involved ourselves in Libya and used that money for our own infrastructure? This Government craps money away everyday.
If Obama really cared maybe he would have made infrastructure a real focus instead of a backdoor amnesty. Just the cost of flying AF1 on his many vacations could have paid for some bridge repairs. My point is that you cant just blame the republicans, this is a bi-partisan issue. The Army didn't want those new tanks but bi-partisan idiots are forcing them on the army.
Here I an idea, cut the pork out and use that money for infrastructure.
What the U.S. will do is wait for a catastrophic bridge collapse, with hundreds killed, even better if it was caused by terrorists. Only then will Congress fund bridge upkeep. Pathetic.
Oh Rob how can you say such a thing? We had billions spent in the Obama bailout. Millions spent on signs that proclaimed paid for by the stimulus package.
Billions spent in foreign aid. How many bridges could have been repaired had we not involved ourselves in Libya and used that money for our own infrastructure? This Government craps money away everyday.
If Obama really cared maybe he would have made infrastructure a real focus instead of a backdoor amnesty. Just the cost of flying AF1 on his many vacations could have paid for some bridge repairs. My point is that you cant just blame the republicans, this is a bi-partisan issue. The Army didn't want those new tanks but bi-partisan idiots are forcing them on the army.
Here I an idea, cut the pork out and use that money for infrastructure.
Agreed, we could take a fraction of the $670 billion military budget and repair all the bridges in the country that need it.
People these days are ridiculous, the bridge that failed a few days ago was inspected months ago and was 100% fine. It didn't fail because of age or because of bad design. If you take a 50 ton block and ram it into the support structure at 50mph something has to give. That bridge is in the water today because of the driver of that truck not paying attention to the height of his load or his support team ahead of him.
From what I gather about this case, I doubt that you are right. This was a 'wide load' truck that had a permit to go across this bridge. A local talk show had several drivers experienced with this type of rig discussing the case. The normal procedure on this bridge for a wide load was to straddle both lanes, but because of the actions of adjacent traffic, the driver couldn't do that. The driver was forced to move over into one lane and hope for the best. Trucker with wide load likely cut off at Skagit bridge - Local - MyNorthwest.com
It sounds to me like the DOT should have anticipated the potential for this situation and come up with a way to obviate it. Either fix the bridge, deny the wide load permits, or create a special procedure for getting wide load trucks across, such as a state patrol escort.
Agreed, we could take a fraction of the $670 billion military budget and repair all the bridges in the country that need it.
The world is a dangerous place, and defense is a basic gov't function. How about we stop blowing money putting government workers accused of wrongdoing on "paid administrative leave?" If she did nothing wrong, let her keep doing her job and earning her keep. If she did, then can her. What is this limbo practice of paying gov't workers to sit at home on their keister, while collecting full pay and benefits? Lois Lerner put on administrative leave by IRS
The world is a dangerous place, and defense is a basic gov't function. How about we stop blowing money putting government workers accused of wrongdoing on "paid administrative leave?" If she did nothing wrong, let her keep doing her job and earning her keep. If she did, then can her. What is this limbo practice of paying gov't workers to sit at home on their keister, while collecting full pay and benefits? Lois Lerner put on administrative leave by IRS
Putting government workers on paid administrative leave might cost what, a few tens of thousands? A drop in the bucket. Meaningless. You can't even begin to compare that amount to $670 BILLION.
The U.S. spends something like 6 times as much as any other country on military spending. Totally 100 % unnecessary. Maybe we could reduce that to 4 times as much. Besides it's not "defense", it's offense, the U.S.A. swooping into countries in the Middle East to kill innocent civilians.
Agreed, we could take a fraction of the $670 billion military budget and repair all the bridges in the country that need it.
Agreed. Do we really need 12 carrier battle groups? But then again why are building infrastructure in other countries, but ignoring our own?
Then again I believe states need to take a more active part in their own infrastructure.
Ridiculous, paranoid, and destroying this country, not protecting it.
The joke of it is that we actually pay to protect or at least foot a large portion of the bill for many of the countries on that list.
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