Obama's making me nervous with this. Demanding that states rush into spending money on infrastructure is a horribly bad idea. It's a practice that has resulted in massive waste already over the last 6 years.
We've sunk hundreds of millions into slapdash "solutions" for national security by way of federal grants after the homeland defense color code system was adopted (priorities...). If some actual planning and thought occurred, it would have been FAR FAR more effectively spent. As it is, whatever ideas were on the table when the money wagon rolled down the street were funded - and many had virtually nothing to do with security.
Bridges should be repaired/replaced - not blindly added to. More lanes = more maintenance and upgrade costs in the future. It is a purely unsustainable approach that was ignored before because we were told that future technology innovations would SURELY reduce these costs over time. After 40 years, it's still oil and stones or concrete... and more expensive than ever.
EVERY reasonable rail and light rail project should take precedence over highway projects. Only exception are bridge repairs.
This is the time to truly FIX transportation problems - not continue doing the same "planning" and building that has fed unsustainable sprawl development and destruction of urban centers. Let's not just throw $500 billion in the air for the sake of the economy, we can't keep throwing more lanes at people complaining about traffic. It's good money after bad.
About President Obama
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