Originally
posted by
TheORKINMan:
Here's my problem with the "roads and bridges" argument. Obama when he came into office lobbied for and got a stimulus that he bloody said would in large portion go towards our infrastructure for shovel ready jobs. Apparently none of it actually did because the next election cycle we heard the same fluff yet again about crumbling roads and infrastructure.
This is what drives me nuts about Democrats. You say we have crumbling infrastructure, great lets fix that. Start by telling us exactly how much money you need to fix what you need to fix and we'll give you that in a one time payment. None of this levying taxes for endless bureaucratic money pits that never get enough no matter how much is sunk into them.
I don't know about you, but here a ton of that money went into local infrastructure projects. But, the problem is WHICH projects. Watch John Oliver's piece about dams in America and you'll see a great summary of the problem. It is exactly what played out here....
What were some of those shovel ready projects? NEW construction. New sidewalks, new buildings, new roads, new toll-lane systems, etc. etc. As Oliver points out, a politician can stand for a photo-op at a ribbon cutting for something "new" but doesn't really get that "sexy" photo-op for basic maintenance on a dam.
This isn't a party problem either, it has been done by both parties at the local, state and federal level. It is a problem of a political system of poorly educated and poorly informed voters in what amounts more to a popularity contest of sound-bytes and photo-ops than real analysis and debate (something journalism USED to do more of to help).