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A lot more than one bridge could crumble under GOP (JESSE JAGMO: ALL REAGAN'S AND BUSH'S FAULT)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | August 7, 2007 | JESSE JACKSON

Posted on 08/07/2007 4:59:33 AM PDT by Chi-townChief

A 40-year-old bridge collapses into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Levees give way in New Orleans at the foot of the Mississippi. An 83-year-old steam pipe produces an eruption that terrorizes Manhattan. As our infrastructure literally crumbles beneath our feet, America is building the largest embassy compound in the world in Iraq -- an area larger than the Pentagon -- to manage a war now estimated to cost $1 trillion. What happened at both ends of the Mississippi and is happening in cities across the country are tragedies, but they aren't random accidents. They are the direct price of the right wing in power. Scornful of government, intent on cutting taxes and slashing spending, they systematically have shorted public investment in our basic infrastructure -- in bridges and roads, in rail lines and air systems, in parks and schools.

The American Society of Civil Engineers gave America a D for its infrastructure in their most recent report in 2005. Ironically, bridges did better -- a grade C -- than sewers, water treatment and a range of other areas. In the report, more than one out of every four bridges in America were rated as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Don't think about that when you drive over your next bridge.

For over 25 years, we've cheated on public investment. ''Government,'' Ronald Reagan preached, ''is not the solution. Government is the problem.'' Activists like Grover Norquist took this to the extreme, saying, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can . . . drown it in the bathtub.''

Norquist and his allies have bullied Republicans into signing a pledge never to raise taxes. In Minnesota, the conservative governor, Tim Pawlenty, campaigned against taxes and vetoed an appropriation bill that would have provided increased funds for highway and bridge repairs. Interstate 35's Bridge 9340, rated structurally deficit by the U.S. Department of Transportation, had repairs on it postponed for a year.

One trillion dollars squandered in the debacle in Iraq. A clamp on vital investments here at home. Those are the stated priorities of modern-day conservatives -- a far remove from those of President Dwight Eisenhower, who built the interstate highway system while putting a lid on military spending and balancing the budget. Ike knew that infrastructure was important; military adventurism was dangerous and fiscal balance was common sense. Modern-day conservatives have abandoned every part of his lessons.

Of course, conservatives will deny that they are responsible for the crumbling of America. In the Republican debate in Iowa, every leading Republican presidential contender called for staying in Iraq and opposed increasing taxes on the wealthy even as they admitted the need to invest in our infrastructure. They are peddling fantasies to a people in desperate need of the truth.

As Minneapolis showed, disdain for public investment can be deadly. It also snuffs out hope. Our schools are old and crowded. There simply isn't the space to provide rising enrollments with the smaller classes that are so necessary for the early years. We should be making schools modern sanctuaries for children, demonstrating how important we take their education to be. Instead, we send them into drafty and dank buildings, with broken windows, outmoded heating systems and crowded classrooms. That is the first lesson they learn.

No one should be fooled. Those who choose to spend $11 billion a month in Iraq while shorting vital investments here at home aren't securing America; they are weakening it.

And as citizens from New Orleans to Manhattan to Minneapolis have discovered, we are all more vulnerable as a result.

jjackson@rainbowpush.org


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: jessejagmo; katrina; minnesota; rats
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It's interesting that Brother Jesse and his ilk refrain from comment on JFK's "rising tide lifts all boats" tax cuts.
1 posted on 08/07/2007 4:59:36 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: Chi-townChief
SO THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS MORE MONEY TO MAKE US SAFE FROM FALLING BRIDGES~!!!

government solutions are always so easy, see?

2 posted on 08/07/2007 5:02:18 AM PDT by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help)
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To: Chi-townChief

This bridge would not have collapsed is George Bush didn’t hate every black person in America!!


3 posted on 08/07/2007 5:03:49 AM PDT by Obadiah (Nothing says, "Get off my lawn" like the inscription of a claymore - THIS SIDE TOWARDS THE ENEMY.)
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To: Chi-townChief
Big Government doesn't work. Its not even competent at maintaining our infrastructure no matter how much money we throw at it. Ol' Jesse and the rest of the Left have never learned its not a question of how much; its a question of priorities. All the money wasted on social programs and prestige projects could have given us first rate infrastructure. By the way, Tom Sowell has a different perspective on the subject than Jesse does, which happens to very profitable reading indeed.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

4 posted on 08/07/2007 5:04:15 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Chi-townChief
We should be making schools modern sanctuaries for children, demonstrating how important we take their education to be.

Toss every NEA member out, decertify the NEA as a bargaining entity, stop indoctrinating the kids with social viewpoints, the homosexual agenda, and the supreme stupidity of “diversity is strength” nonsense and they would be.

The last thing in the world we want to do is throw more money down the rathole that the American educational system has become.

and that is how we demonstrate that their education is truly important. and that you are truly ignorant.

5 posted on 08/07/2007 5:08:09 AM PDT by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")
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To: Chi-townChief
Just more L/W pap from the leader of the Justice Brothers. Truth is, at least in Minneapolis according to MNJohnnie one of our brilliant Freepers who just happens to live near Minneapolis,that the powers that be are responsible for the bridge collapse.

The bridge was declared unsafe in 1990 For the next 17 years locals spent over one billion in federal aid on the Hiawatha Pathway", a light rail system in the Minneapolis area, instead of repairing the bridge.

So whose fault is this really.

6 posted on 08/07/2007 5:08:19 AM PDT by rodguy911 (Support The New media, Ticket the Drive-bys, --America-The land of the Free because of the Brave-)
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To: Chi-townChief

Where did N.O. spend its funds that should have gone to the levees? Lack of planning and being prepared should lay at the feet of the N.O. government and Governor Blanco specifically.


7 posted on 08/07/2007 5:09:04 AM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife (Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.--William Goldman)
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To: Chi-townChief

I’m not crossing that bridge when I come to it!

Aren’t there a lot of states that are running surpluses?

If that’s the case, why raise taxes when there’s dough in many state coffers that could be used to repair bridges?

I never knew that President Bush hated bridges. Who knew?


8 posted on 08/07/2007 5:11:41 AM PDT by RexBeach ("Americans never quit." Douglas MacArthur)
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To: All
Post # 14 on the Sunday morning tv talk show thread highlighted on the right.
9 posted on 08/07/2007 5:13:03 AM PDT by rodguy911 (Support The New media, Ticket the Drive-bys, --America-The land of the Free because of the Brave-)
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To: bill1952
“The last thing in the world we want to do is throw more money down the rathole that the American educational system has become.”

Too late. When you can graduate from college work 20 years as a teacher, retire at 43 or 45 and collect a large percentage of your pay with benefits, how can you STOP the money from going down the proverbial rathole?

Again, too late.

10 posted on 08/07/2007 5:13:05 AM PDT by poobear (Pure democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner. God save the Republic!)
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To: Mr. K
SO THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS MORE MONEY TO MAKE US SAFE FROM FALLING BRIDGES~!!!

liberal taboo: less taxes = more revenue

11 posted on 08/07/2007 5:17:29 AM PDT by JohnLongIsland
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To: Chi-townChief

For decades the corrupt NYC pols have had to choose between maintaining infrastructure or buying votes from the welfare extortionists and municipal union thugs.

Guess which way they chose.

You’re right Jesse. We don’t pay enough taxes. Just ask any NYer who actually works for a living.


12 posted on 08/07/2007 5:17:56 AM PDT by joeystoy
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To: Chi-townChief
As our infrastructure literally crumbles beneath our feet,

As my reputation literally crumbles beneath my feet,

Fixed it.

13 posted on 08/07/2007 5:18:43 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: JohnLongIsland
Liberals never solve problems; they create them and leave them unaddressed to show we need yet more government to create more of those same problems as the ones that haven't been gotten around to being fixed... yet.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

14 posted on 08/07/2007 5:21:05 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Chi-townChief
Hey Jagmo, take a little ride around your own neighborhood in Chi and look UP when you go under a RR Viaduct.

When I was a kid, way back in the late 50's and early 60's, the concrete was falling off nearly all of them. In fact Jesse when we needed 'chalk' we'd do down to long RR Viaduct at 39th & Western and use up the concrete chips that were always laying on the sidewalk.

(However they played heck on bike tires. When going to McKinley Park we had to zig-zag around the big pieces)

15 posted on 08/07/2007 5:32:34 AM PDT by Condor51 (Rudy makes John Kerry look like a Right Wing 'Gun Nut' Extremist)
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To: Chi-townChief

You MUST be from Chicago. I have never heard the “jag..” reference anywhere else.


16 posted on 08/07/2007 5:35:47 AM PDT by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote.)
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To: Chi-townChief
So, even if what he says is true, liberals apparently think that the solution to the problem that government failed to spend enough money to protect us is to give that government more money? Riiiight. And given that decay takes time, doesn't that mean that the Clinton administration must bear some of the blame? And what about the Carter administration? Hello? Bueller? Bueller?
17 posted on 08/07/2007 5:40:28 AM PDT by Reaganesque (Romney for President 2008)
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To: Condor51

The one that got me was the railroad bridge on 35th just west of the ballpark; that’s looked like it’s been ready to come down for about 40 years.


18 posted on 08/07/2007 5:51:15 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: Chi-townChief

Doesn’t Jesse have a couple payments to former secretaries to make?


19 posted on 08/07/2007 5:56:15 AM PDT by EricT. (The tree of liberty needs to be watered...)
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To: Chi-townChief
Interstate highways are an example where there are federal interests. We need such highways for both economic and military reasons. I can support the federal government working toward building and maintaining the those roads alongside the states.

However, most infrastructure is a state or local issue, not a federal one.

Sewers and water treatment are local issues, not federal.

The levees in New Orleans are a state and local issue.

The army corp of engineers is a federal resource that helps local and state governments with such issues, but the responsibility to build and maintain that infrastructure falls upon the state and local governments.

During the end of Bush Senior's term and through most of Clinton's two terms the US experienced a huge economic expansion. State and local governments were swimming in tax dollars. Did those states take those windfalls and invest in necessary infrastructure? They did invest some. However they also vastly expanded services and expanded parks and other resources that required upkeep. Instead of investing those tax dollars in rebuilding and maintaining critical infrastructure, they gave themselves more projects to maintain, which they are unable to support during the slower but steady growth we are experiencing now.

Our economy is strong, but our governments are going bankrupt simply due to grossly incompetent planning. This is of course leading to the usual blame game where incompetent politicians all try and shift the blame elsewhere, and the liberal socialists and communists use it as an opportunity to say that the problem would be solved by a stronger federal government.

In truth, bad local public policies must be allowed to fail so that people will learn. Otherwise problems will get increasingly worse and there will be no accountability at local levels, and the weight of all those bad policies will strangle us at the federal level.

This is one of the main reasons big, socialist government is doomed to failure.

Jesse and his ilk, don't offer solutions, they just try and shift blame. They have no solutions to real problems. The problem they are trying to solve is how to gain more power over the people, not solve the people's problems. If problems actually got solved, they would lose their influence, because they get their influence by blaming others.

20 posted on 08/07/2007 5:58:36 AM PDT by untrained skeptic
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