The specific explosion in New York City was not brought to us by Republicans but as sure as the sun rises in the morning you can believe there will be more such disasters orchestrated by the Republican Party and the Democrats who play along with policies designed to assuage the moderates but end up irritating everyone.
News item: Blast shows age of U.S. infrastructure:: With a blast that made skyscrapers tremble, an 83-year-old steam pipe sent a powerful message that the miles of tubes, wires and iron beneath New York and other U.S. cities are getting older and could become dangerously unstable
This country was built on investment, investment in infrastructure. Urban residents paid to help bring rural electrification to the farms. Easterners paid for dams that watered the western plains. City resident paid for highways that opened up the suburbs. Rural folks helped pay for lands given to the railroads that brought agricultural goods to the cities.
Now the Republicans are making sure that no one pays. Roads are deteriorating, schools are firetraps and unable to provide reliable Internet connections, airports are inadequate to handle the demands of modern day air traffic, sewage and water systems are strained.
Waxing America, October 12, 2005: Fix the bridges and the dams. "A right-wing government that strangles public expenditures for public works is largely responsible for what happened in New Orleans." (Katrina Compounded, Sept. 1, 2005)
Here in the Badger State the chant may be led by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and their minions in the legislature, but they have their counterparts in every state house and in the nation's capital.
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." ---Grover Norquist, presidential adviser and conservative strategist, close business and political ally of Jack Abramhoff
The reports warning about the pending crisis are brought by the American Society of Civil Engineers,, (ASCE) not your most liberal Kos-reading, Clinton-loving, acid-dropping, sandal-wearing, Volvo-driving, band of followers of Abbie Hoffman, Doctor Spock, and Little Sally.
ASCE estimates that $1.6 trillion is needed over a five-year period to bring the nation's infrastructure to a good condition
Cost of the war in Iraq, from the New York Times: What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy
The money could be better spent fixing America than making Iraq a recruiting camp for terrorists.
Cross linked:Waxing America