[isthisnickcool]

When Illinois and Indiana rolled out the red carpet to private investors, Macquarie and a Spanish company Cintra took them up on the invitation and shelled out billions.

Cintra is the same company that Texas has been dealing with for the Trans-Texas Corridor garbage. This should read private FOREIGN investors.

Anyone get the feeling that we long ago lost what the founders created?

I don't regret Guiliani making money but did he really DO anything after 9/11 but clean the mess up? And for that he gets major bucks and a shot at the presidency? Seems to me that like Bush and his millions off the taxpayers for Texas stadium almost all these people have gotten rich off the taxpayers in some way. Just the fact that Rudy has done a deal with Cintra takes him off my list.

Gore, Clintons, Bush, etc. all multi-millionaires. For what? "Public service". Yea, sure.

[calcowgirl]

It's the new craze(R)! Don't raise taxes, borrow up the ying-yang, and sell off (or lease out) revenue producing assets to private (foreign) investors for large lump-sum amounts to fund government. All under the guise of "public private partnerships." Big-business "partnered" with government will quickly destroy sovereignty and individual rights, IMO. But in the meantime, bankers, politicians, and international 'financiers' are getting along quite well.

[StormEye]

"I don't regret Guiliani making money but did he really DO anything after 9/11 but clean the mess up?"

I also wonder why people think Guiliani was some sort of heroic figure during the 9/11 attack. All I saw him do was walk around the streets of NYC after the attack. He certainly couldn't stop the buildings from collapsing. I will credit him with boosting morale and taking charge in the chaos of the moment.

As for cleaning up afterwards, if I remember correctly Guiliani had to leave office that year. Guiliani even "offered" to extend his term in office past its legal end since he thought he was the only one who could deal properly with all the trouble.