Our country is falling apart

Literally, the physical structures that hold this country together are falling apart. The nation’s highways and bridges are in disrepair and road crews are short billions to get them up to safe conditions. Our aging sewage system is breaking apart and finding money for repairs has become a major challenge. Our military barracks and hospitals are crumbling and money is being lavished on an illegal war and the American contractors who want to keep it going.

Roads and Bridges

Our nation's bridges, highways, and other transportation arteries are old, outmoded, and under tremendous strain, and we are not spending enough to maintain the existing infrastructure, let alone expand it for a growing population. 73,518 bridge-spans, nationwide, have been identified by the Transportation Department as "structurally deficient", in poor condition and needing repair but not unsafe. Not unsafe? It is cheaper to rate these bridges “not unsafe” on paper until another fatal collapse like what happened to the 40-year-old Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that broke apart into the Mississippi River on August 1. Only after a collapse will the experts say ‘well, I guess that one was unsafe”.

The Department of Transportation's inspector general last year criticized the Highway Administration's oversight of interstate bridges, saying that flawed calculations of weight limits could pose safety hazards. The Highway Administration agreed its oversight of state bridge inspections needed to be improved. So, even the 73,518 number might be inaccurate.

This nation has a chronic underinvestment problem which has created a huge backlog of maintenance projects. Federal highway spending this year is set at $40 billion, Pete Ruane, president of American Road and Transportation Builders Association and other industry groups put the 2007 cost to improve existing highways and bridges at $155.5 billion. Over the next five years, the American Society of Civil Engineers says it will take $1.6 trillion in capital investment by all levels of government to keep the current system up to date. That's almost six times the $286 billion in federal funds that the 2005 highway bill provided to the states for transportation construction and repairs through 2010.

Here’s part of the problem: politicians, like Minnesota Democratic Rep. James Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who sit behind their big desks writing new legislation designed to magically fix everything. He wants to establish a new trust fund for bridge repairs. Why, Mr. Oberstar, do we need a new trust fund? This amounts to busy work on your part. What we need is leadership that will direct funds into the existing trust fund to get these repairs done.

The trust fund that finances the federal highway program through fuel and other highway-use taxes faces a $4.3 billion shortfall in two years, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Unless Congress plugs that hole, the government will have to slash more than $16 billion from the $43 billion in aid that the states were promised for 2009.

Due to the stellar job our federal government is doing in managing the economy, the trust fund's purchasing power has declined by 30% so the country is spending less today in constant dollars than when federal fuel taxes were last increased 15 years ago. Strong global demand for building materials like steel and concrete have pushed up prices of those raw materials. Higher oil prices have raised the cost of asphalt and the diesel fuel need to power road-building equipment. Why do we allow ‘strong global demand for building materials’ to increase prices to our nations transportation departments? Why must we pay higher global prices when the materials are coming out of our own backyard?

Some possible ideas to address providing more funds for repairs include ending state and local governments' gas-tax exemption; crediting the trust fund with interest; combating tax evasion by organized crime and, two of my personal favorites, placing a higher tax on gas-guzzlers (low-mileage vehicles) and raising gas tax which has remained at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993.

Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel provide nearly 90% of the trust fund's revenue, which clearly is not enough. Congress proposed raising the tax by 4 cents a gallon, but the measure died when the White House threatened to veto any highway spending bill that included a tax increase. State gasoline taxes are levied based on volume, not price, revenues have not increased even as the price of gasoline has risen sharply. As high pump prices promote conservation, lower sales volumes of gasoline mean even less money to support road repair.

The health of our entire economy depends on our roadway system. About three-quarters of the $8.4 trillion worth of commodities delivered each year nationwide is carried by trucks; delays in that supply chain reduce the productivity of American businesses. At the same time motorists spend 3.7 billion hours a year stuck in traffic at a cost of $63 billion in wasted time and fuel costs, according to TRIP, a national transportation research group.

Military Infrastructure

The recent stories of rundown facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. stirred up interest in how the federal government has not been keeping up with physical plant maintenance.

Reviews of VA medical facilities across the nation have found the presence of rodents, bugs, chronic leaks, and dilapidated furniture.

Army barracks across the U.S. require immediate repair to combat mold and moisture–related damage to structures. According to Army inspectors, “30% of our existing barracks are World War II and Korean War-era and require large investments to extend their life until replacement facilities are constructed." Army official have redirected $250 million from other funds to get the repairs done immediately. They gave this breakdown of how the funds will be divided among the barracks that need repairs:

• Fort Polk, Louisiana, $166 million.

• Fort Gordon, Georgia, $49.7 million.

• The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, $9.3 million.

• Fort Lewis, Washington, $7.4 million.

• Fort Stewart, Georgia, $6.2 million.

• Fort Bragg, North Carolina, $2.9 million (in addition to the $2.6 million spent in response to the initial reports).

• Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii, $1.7 million.

• Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, $1.2 million.

Sewage Systems

America's aging sewer systems are dumping human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data shows that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants.

Any heavy downpour of rain immobilizes areas of cities due to inefficient stormwater drainage systems, some combine with aging and cracked sewer systems to allow bacteria laden sewage to flow freely onto beaches and roadways.

We spend over $3 billion a week on the war. Money that is better spent here in our own country on our own citizens safety. Instead George and his cronies have devised a method of feeding themselves first. KBR, Haliburton and other American contractors are all getting paid extremely well for what they do in Iraq. And George blanket-vetoes any spending that Democrats come up with to increase spending for public safety.

But writing new legislation is not going to fix these problems, getting politicians off of the gravy train of earmarks and other inappropriate use of tax payers dollars will free up a remarkable amount of money to fund these necessary expenditures. Once we slough off all of the lobbyists and other self-interest leeches that are bleeding this country dry we may find that we don’t need to raise taxes at all.