MarvinSussman

Steve Croft interviewed a railroad executive who pointed out the Portal Bridge that gets a LOT of Boston-DC traffic and was in terrible shape. Repairs back up traffic on both sides of the river all the way back to New York and DC.

From Wikipedia (Portal Bridge)

In December 2008, the Federal Railroad Administration approved a $1.34 billion project to replace the Portal Bridge with two new bridges—a three-track bridge to the north, and a two-track bridge to the south. The new bridges were scheduled to be completed in 2017, at which time the Portal Bridge was to be dismantled. In 2009, New Jersey applied for $38.5 million in funding for the replacement from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[9] On January 28, 2010, the federal funds were released as a TIGER grant.[10] The funds will go toward final design for the new bridge.[11][12][13]

The original timeline for the project called for construction of the new bridge to begin in 2010, with the bridge replacement to be complete by 2017.[14] However, partly due to cancellation of the Access to the Region's Core project, as well as limited funding, this original plan was reduced to a single two-track bridge constructed north of the current bridge. As of fall 2012, final engineering is scheduled to be completed in early 2013 and no construction timeline has been given.[15] The new bridge will be a part of the Amtrak Gateway Project, estimated to cost $13.5 billion.[16][17][18] In April 2011, Amtrak applied for federal funding of $570 million for construction, with New Jersey expected to commit $150 million.[19][20]

Obama's stimulus (ACA) spent $787B with less than $40B on infrastructure. The Portal Bridge explains why so little was spent on infrastructure in ACA. Planning the work required two years and $38.5M in planning costs. Since ACA was a two year program, the other $1.3B+ went to tax cuts or something else.

America is falling apart because there is little money being spent to MANAGE our infrastructure: maintain an inventory of every item in the nation, with its state of repair, maintenance schedule, estimates, approvals, approved contractors, and contracts waiting to be signed when Congress finds the money.

If planning for one bridge costs $38.5M, what's the planning cost for 70,000 bridges in critical need of repair? Assuming an average planning cost of $10M, that's $700B needed to MANAGE our bridges over a 50 year period or $14B annually.

And that's only bridges. What about, roads, sewers, airports, seaports, water-ways, water supply, buildings, etc. Is that $50B annually or more?

And that's only MANAGEMENT. What about the cost of maintenance and repair? For the Portal Bridge the cost of the project was 35 times the cost of MANAGEMENT or $1.75T annually. Conservatively, I get at least $1.5T annually for MANAGEMENT and repair.

OK, let's call it $1T annually. That comes to about $10 daily per US adult, about enough for a trip to Starbucks. What's the opportunity cost of paying benefits to 20 million people instead of training and hiring them?

Print the damn money before China eats your lunch!

Let's hear it from the OPP small gummint nuts:

Honey! Ah dun shrunk the gummint an' it ain't wuhkin' no maw!

Boo Hoo!

JMHO Loc: Utah

MarvinSussman

You will never get a Blue Dog Democrat to v**e for a tax increase. They are conservatives. No conservative will ever v**e for a tax increase, even if the street in front their house caved in.

That's why you have to print the money.

JimMe

OK... In Terms Even I - a Conservative - Understands:

$10 per Adult per day comes out to $3650 per year per Adult.. Increase in Taxes... Oh wait... Only half the Adults in the USA are working (US Labor Dept figures for 2014 reflect this)... So, either Adults not working still pay $3650 in Additional Taxes (very hard to do without Working) or Working Adults will need to pay a mere $20 per Day or $7300 per year EACH...

Now if you take your Original Estimate of $1.5 Trillion, the figures look like this:
$15 per Adult per Day (if $1 Trillion works out to $10 it Stands to Reason $1.5 Trillion comes to $15) or $5475 per Year per Adult ($15 times 365 Days)...
That's $10750 per Year per Working Adult in ADDITIONAL TAXES to keep ACA-ObamaCare & ReBuild Our 70000 Bridges...

Grugore

On top of that, you have trillions of dollars in unfunded commitments such as Social Security. We are so screwed.

Blacksheep

Yes, in fact, print up several million dollars for each of us and give it to us, tax free, so we can spend it or create businesses out of it and make the economy boom, right?. Of course, since everyone will have huge amounts of cash, and our money supply will be suddenly inflated by about $66 Trillion dollars, the value of each dollar will go down to what a nickel will buy today, and we'll be right back where we started from, only our international credit will have taken a total crap, everyone will have paid off their mortgages and all other debts with nearly worthless notes, which will cause every bank in America to collapse, the life savings of retirees will be near valueless, our entire economy would have to completely restructure itself, our government would have to re-value the currency, meaning all the old money would be devalued by a factor of at least 100 to 1 as new replacement currency was issued, to make the dollar worth a dollar again.

And on and on.

Print the money. Print the money. Yeah, sure. That's exactly what's happening now, and that's why our inflation is going nuts.

JMHO Loc: Utah

There are no more Blue Dog conservative Democrats...they were ousted back when Pelosi was Speaker of the House.

Print more money? Oh yeah, more of your failed Keynesian economics...have some more Kool Aid.

MarvinSussman

Who said it was taxes? That $10 per day is not taxes. It is the amount of money spent by Congress.

Print the damn money like it's WW III. It worked for WW II and the Civil War. Try it again. You won't need a wheel barrow to haul your daily $10.

MarvinSussman

You won't get the $10. Somebody who does something useful will get it and spend it, just like WW II. We can always cut back spending after prosperity arrives.

MarvinSussman

The problem is not spending. The problem is waste due to 20 million Unemployed workers x 2,000 hours per year x $Lost Value not Produced per hour x 40 years. Put in your own numbers. I get $12T.

J Anthony Loc: Connecticut

VladimirPee

Don't worry Better use a row boat to cross rivers.

Amnesty Cost to Taxpayers: $6.3 Trillion

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/05/amnesty-cost-to-taxpayers

J Anthony Loc: Connecticut

All that is going to happen anyways. A complete re-structuring of the monetary-system is exactly what needs to happen. The Fed's system has put us into this mess, & both parties who have allowed it to go on. Especially since Nxon's full repeal of the Bretton-Woods agreement, Reagan, Clinton, both Bushes and Obama have allowed private-banking cartels to create our currency, at criminally usurious interest rates. Since the early 70's most capital has flowed directly upward from the majority to a small minority. Ever ask yourself why there's always plenty of dough for war, foreign aid, corporate subsidies, but none for what we really need in our own country? Ever wonder about anything that doesn't involve blaming just Democrats? The root of the problem is the monetary-system itself and wwho has the power to issue currency, and what kind. do yourself a favor, learn about it.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

Now you know full well, that we cannot fight 3 wars AND fix stuff here at home. We have to prioritize and defense contactors ALWAYS have first dibs on the available funds. Now that the Republicans have taken control, they can cut out all the freeloading going on with welfare - and they'll be able to afford to fix 2 bridges. Now that means that in 105 years, they'll have ALL the bridges fixed - then they can go on to roads. It's a perfect plan - that's assuming we don't start ANOTHER war or two in the meantime.

VladimirPee

No because now we need to spend on I*****l a***ns. That's the most pressing issue in America.