America must renew its infrastructure or face decline

[ABFwife]

A great opinion piece by Jesse Jackson. I would have to agree completely with this.

The American Society of Civil Engineers released a report last week once more warning the country of a massive investment deficit - an estimated $1.4 trillion shortfall over the next ten years - coming on top of years of underfunding and neglect.

This isn't a matter of money. The Obama administration has announced it plans to spend over $1 trillion to build a new generation of nuclear weapons and the planes, missiles, and submarines that deliver them. These are weapons that can never be used. We have spent over $2 trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to date, with the final costs estimated at $4 to $6 trillion. The war in Afghanistan - an impoverished country where we have no strategic interest - is already the longest in our history and continuing.

But Washington is frozen. The Republican Congress rejects President Obama's modest plans for infrastructure investment, though they are supported by a massive coalition that includes the conservative Chamber of Commerce as well as the AFL-CIO. All three presidential candidates call for expanding investment in infrastructure (although only Bernie Sanders comes close to meeting the shortfall that the civil engineers warn about). But it will require a wave election - a sweeping rebuke to the obstructionist Republican Congress - for anything to happen.

America must renew its infrastructure or face decline » peoplesworld

[Sayheykid]

It's been said that with the Republicans we have in the House and Senate today, Eisenhower (A Republican) would not have been able to get the Interstate Highway system done, (paid for by the tax payers, by the way and Socialist Program if i ever seen one, in which everyone has benefited)

[fxstc07]

It's been said that with the Republicans we have in the House and Senate today, Eisenhower (A Republican) would not have been able to get the Interstate Highway system done, (paid for by the tax payers, by the way and Socialist Program if i ever seen one, in which everyone has benefited)

Don't forget the TVA ( Tennessee Valley Authority ) that was embroiled in controversy and labeled as a "socialist" program and was blocked by two successive republican administrations ( Coolidge and Hoover ) before finally being signed into law by Roosevelt.
The republicans wanted that land to be sold to private sector.

Then you have the GI Bill, perhaps one of the greatest federal programs to ever help build the middle class.

There are plenty of others, but even 80 years ago the republicans were firmly in the pockets of the corporations.

[strapdrager]

It's been said that with the Republicans we have in the House and Senate today, Eisenhower (A Republican) would not have been able to get the Interstate Highway system done, (paid for by the tax payers, by the way and Socialist Program if i ever seen one, in which everyone has benefited)

(paid for by the tax payers, by the way and Socialist Program if i ever seen one, in which everyone has benefited)
Yes, back in the day when is was far cheaper to do so.
The US is collecting over 3Trillion in tax receipts the most it has ever collected in american history. The money is there it's just spent elsewhere.

[ABFwife]

(paid for by the tax payers, by the way and Socialist Program if i ever seen one, in which everyone has benefited)
Yes, back in the day when is was far cheaper to do so.
The US is collecting over 3Trillion in tax receipts the most it has ever collected in american history. The money is there it's just spent elsewhere.

Usually in areas that we really don't need to be spending so much money on. Such as war.