Thanks, Republicans...

[MrScorpio]

[merrily]

1. Republicans may have had some help during the last 30 years.

[progressoid]

4. Yup. n/t

[olegramps]

18. I keep saying it over and over:

The greatest threat to our nation is not the Islamic terrorists or from any outside force but the radical Republican Terrorists! When they choose to obstruct President Obama, they could care less if it destroys the nation in the process.

[merrily]

19. Our infrastructure didn't crumble in the last 5-6 years.

These days, I try to focus more on the 99% than on Obama or any politicians.

When I do that, it's clear that it's not only Republicans hurting the 99%. Though they make a convenient target and deserve everything they get from us, they have not been acting alone.

[99Forever]

35. ^^This^^

Bad politics/worse politics.

Keep us fighting each other and rob us blind. Plenty of guilt to go around.

[olegramps]

45. As regard to the infrastructure, in the past he was approached on a bi-partison basis.

It did not always get all the funds that were required, by during this administration every attempt to fund a project to address the issue has been blocked by the Republicans. I don't by the false argument of equal blame.

[merrily]

47. Yeah, I didn't make an equal blame argument. And I said that our infratructure did not

crumble in the last 6 years. meaning it's is not about Obama. Believe it or not, everything isn't about Obama. This is so much bigger than Obama.

But saying Republicans and only Republicans are to blame flies in the face of reality; and I prefer to live in reality.

[flamin lib]

2. We're number 16! We're number 16!

Just doesn't have the same ring to it, huh?

[Gothmog]

3. The GOP is being stupid

[calimary]

5. ... and short-sighted, and just like their saint reagan. Penny-wise and pound OBSCENELY foolish.

[malthaussen]

6. Seriously, it's hard to believe that captalists would not want to invest in infrastructure.

It's really quite sad, you know. Those who think they are defending capitalism really seem to have the least understanding of what it is. Sad, but not surprising, since it oftentimes happens that those who wave a flag most vigorously have little understanding of what it stands for.

-- Mal

[charliea]

14. No I think you've mis-understood their rationale

They do want to invest in large capital projects, but only if they're privately owned. Look at Indiana who leased (sold?) their toll roads to a foreign entity (corporate person) for a 75 years. That should be interesting since it declared bankruptcy in November last year. What about the Michigan billionaire suing Canada under NAFTA for building a new bridge because it may harm his income stream?

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/01/13/canada_being_sued_for_billions_under_nafta_investor_protections.html

All roads (and everything else) must be in private hands, it's the end goal of capitalism, not necessarily a requirement of a democracy.

The 'public commons' is anathema to capitalists.

[malthaussen]

15. Well, you've got a point, there.

But it still emphasises immediate gain over long-term usefulness, since it has been manifestly proved that privatization is bad in the long run. But yeah, they do cry real tears at any common ownership of lands. I'd submit, though, that that is more a sign of Libertarianism than Capitalism, but I'd not be surprised to find the two conflated in any given individual, especially with all the Randites running around these days.

-- Mal

[mountain grammy]

16. Yep, you hit it. In Colorado a few large road and bridge projects

have been hijacked and there will be toll lanes, privately operated and private investment but with a great deal of taxpayer money. Private profits, public risks. This is not a private/public partnership, this is the funneling of public money to private companies who take little or no risk. all profit, no risk, what a deal.

[merrily]

20. Oh, they do. Haven't any of them approached you about buying a bridge?

[raven mad]

36. I think the Bridge to Nowhere

is still up for grabs...........

I'd truly like to see the Kochsuckers try privatizing infrastructure here in Interior Alaska. It would truly be a lesson to them.

[merrily]

42. LOL. Well, we all know Sarah said "Thanks, but no thanks to the bridge to nowhere."

I didn't know what happened to it after 2008, though.

She was for it before she was against it.

[m.bolden jr.]

10. I think they're captured

Since there are those in control of piles of money big enough to buy elections and force their hired choices to follow their orders, these GOPers are just stooges, doing what they're told. It wouldn't't work if this were not a low-information nation, but it is. It's a failure of the corporate media to do their job,and a failure of the educational system - you can't teach if there's no order or discipline.

[rhett o rick]

43. The face of the GOP are a bunch of clowns, but the people behind the curtain are not

stupid. They have the resources to hire the smartest people. They know exactly what they are doing. They are using the money that should go to infrastructure and giving to themselves in the form of defense contracts and tax breaks. The tax payers will soon have to make that money up. If they asked to raise taxes to line their coffers, the people would object, so they divert infrastructure money and the general public doesn't notice because their propaganda machine (Corp-Media) is diverting attention to an accident on the 405, again. When we start having rolling brown outs or black outs and more bridges start falling down, the GOP will shrug and say sorry but it's time to increase taxes on the 99%.

Don't be misled by the clowns that make up the GOP, the Oligarch Rulers are pulling the strings.

[B2G]

7. Didn't the stimulus bill contain a lot of infrastructure money?

Like 105 billion? How was that ever spent?

[jeff47]

9. A drop in the bucket.

We've got trillions worth of delayed maintenance and upgrades. 105 billion helps, but doesn't make too large a dent.

[mwooldri]

11. Indeed the ARRA contained infrastructure money. Just not enough.

Locally, I know the I-85 Yadkin River bridge was replaced using funds from the ARRA. I don't know where one could go to see how the "stimulus funds" were allocated specifically.

The problem is that we have so much bad infrastructure, we don't need billions to fix it. We need trillions to fix it.

[merrily]

21. Projects had to be "shovel ready." Not many were. And it wasn't enough money, anyway.

[B2G]

22. So what was accomplished with the 100 billion?

No one seems to know, much less care.

If that can't be accounted for, why should we allocate even more?

I'm all for investment in infrastructure, but it has to be managed and spent wisely.

[merrily]

23. I think if you were to Google you would find articles saying it was well spent and other articles

saying it was mismanaged. I seem to recall reading both online a few years back. That's what we have come to in this country. One partisan view contradicting another partisan view and few on either side can "handle the truth."

[Pathwalker]

24. Lansing Michigan area has several roads that that were fixed

thanks to that money, and now they're the only roads it's safe to travel on, thanks to our Repuke legislature and governor. The other roads here aren't just awful, they're dangerous.

[Blanks]

28. We had several projects in this area.

There were signs along the road where the projects were being upgraded. As far as people complaining about how the money was spent, people are always going to complain when THEIR project wasn't chosen.

But, as several others have said it was a drop in the bucket. Much more needs to be done, and it's expensive upgrading existing highways because traffic always has to be maintained and so from an observers point of view, the contractor just keeps doing the same thing over and over - because of the maintenance of traffic. It appears more wasteful than building a highway across the field.

[homegirl]

39. California Freeway 101

North of San Francisco-miles and miles of widened roadways and many new and enlarged overpasses.

So, if you know what was done with that "shovel ready" stimulus money in your neighborhood let B2G know.

[Fred Sanders]

8. Building ONE oil pipeline will apparently fix that all up. I am not making that up. It is official

policy of the GOP.

[valerief]

12. Rich people shouldn't pay taxes. Only poor people who have no jobs.

That's the Republican way! You know, bootstraps, freedumbs, liberty, and the right to bare arms.

[starroute]

38. Don't forget skin in the game

Apparently the country turned into a poker tournament while we weren't looking.

[valerief]

44. Yeah, the PTB are playing with marked cards. nt

[world wide wally]

13. …enemies, both foreign and domestic.

[libodem]

17. In wonder if we are first in anything anymore?

Except the Nationalistic belief that we are in some way exceptional as a breed.

[Blanks]

29. I'm pretty sure we are number one in gun deaths per capita. Isn't it great? Eom

[libodem]

32. No Doubt

[maddiemom]

30. And that's really ironic, ain't it?

"American Exeptionalism?" The stupid, mindless belief by even the most exploited that they are superior to the rest of the world because--USA! The embarrassment of dropping so far behind other developed nations in so many areas? Not on their radar. And "they?" How to describe them? First: NOT the majority of the country according to almost all polls. But the VOCAL minority who make their beliefs a priority. Catered WAY too much in allowing their beliefs to impact progress in this nation that once DEFINED progress. The few governmental figures who refuse to cater to the backward among us---keep trying. The minority are making the most noise. Put as much as possible to a vote. Other major western nations are not being run by a background of religious superstition. The U.S.A. shouldn't have to consider this,

[libodem]

33. Exactly

[oldandhappy]

25. ahhhh, exceptionalism

[SleeplessinSoCal]

26. Time to put politics aside and deal with serious problems.

Larry Summers pointed out on Charlie Rose last night that it will never be more affordable than it is now and fix more than the infrastructure.

[maddiemom]

27. Our increasingly decaying infrastructure...

plus our number of unemployed, of course, make this a no-brainer. Make available the funds spent on useless foreign wars, and getting out of those wars...also obvious. That this is all too FDR, is obvious to too many Republicans, many of whom weren't even born during the New Deal. OMG! Smacks of Socialism. This can only continue for so long. Republican refusal to pass any helpful legislation to the rest of us, for fear of President Obama getting credit, is bad enough. Seeming to be more fixated on destroying any of his programs than providing their own helpful legislation is unconscionable. The GOP needs to have a program for this natin other than destroying the POTUS.

[ChosenUnWisely]

31. From day one the Teapublicans wanted to destroy it all just to blame the black guy

and what does America do, elect more Teapublicans.

We deserve what we get for being so fucking stupid.

[NewJeffCT]

37. This has been going on since Reagan

Carter was really the last president until Obama to put good money towards infrastructure investments. And, yes, that includes Clinton. I think some in Clinton's cabinet later admitted that they should have put a lot more money towards infrastructure, but were too eager to brag about the budget surpluses that could have gone towards improving the grid, fixing roads & bridges, airports and ports, etc.

[maddiemom]

46. Jumping back in a day later...

Bill Clinton had the political savvy and natural popularity to do pretty much anything he might have wanted (certainly controlling his libido, in retrospect not so unusual, just more circumspect.

[Enthusiast]

34. All due to the Starve the Beast policy.

Fucking idiots.

[Gumboot]

40. Here in the GOP / Libertarian hell-hole of Colorado Springs...

... there's a worn out trainwreck of a bridge on the south side of town that's literally being glued back together. Every few weeks, another crew goes out to pour a whole bunch of that black rubber solution into the cracks.

I have to grit my teeth every time I drive over it. The badly rusted guardrails look like they could barely contain an errant golf cart.

I'm hoping it's a bunch of the local GOP / AFP loons that go down into Fountain Creek with it, when it finally does collapse.

Thanks, Republicans...

[asiliveandbreathe]

41. How interesting you should mention

Colo Springs - I came through CS in July - from AZ - I was totally disgusted with I25 North (and south I25 on my return trip) - there was absolutely no rhyme nor reason for how the work is being done...or traffic directed -" by signage" - left lane closed...right lane closed..left lane closed etc for at least 10 miles..considerable depth of uneven roadway, not just roughed up - and narrow construction lanes....

At least in AZ construction on roadway has some semblance of organization with safety of commuters in mind. oh, and did I mention time line for completion..contractually..novel idea....CS - not so much - it is like CS is just sitting on 10 miles of highway construction waiting, like oil tankers on the high seas, for the cost of construction to rise...

The only other construction was 1225 in Aurora...totally messed up also..I was able to avoid this mess by using Chambers to Parker and pick up I25 further south on my return trip..

You must feel like the petunia in the onion patch..especially re: AFP - I know how that is - retired AZ from Massachusetts..only from the most liberal county in the country (or might as well be)..