The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Building Bridges

8.13.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

I am a child of the 1940s and as I grew up many huge infrastructure projects were underway: The National highway System; sewer systems and water treatment plants everywhere. At least in part, these activities must have fueled the economic boom of the 1950's.

Then in the early 1960's everything changed. President Johnson finagled the welfare system through a democrat congress and economically enslaved millions of Americans. The focus then changed forever. Democrats now had a captive constituency and they intended to keep it. Billions went to "improving" the lives of our poorest citizens. And to be sure they stayed poor Mr. Johnson required that fathers not be in evidence in the home. Thus ended the family in the African-American household.

That's why there is a backup of infrastructure needs. Go to New York City. Quite literally everything in the city is between 50 and 100 hundred years old. Why? The politicians who have run it all this time spent money on poor people. This always has the same result: more poor people come to your door. Then more money is spent on poor people and so it goes.

I grew up in the northeast and it was a prosperous place. I moved to the south after the military and now when I go back "home" I find many of the cities and towns are reminiscent of Hue after the Tet Offensive. I just drove through Syracuse this summer and its central city would be best used for salvage of 100 year old bricks. One has only to look at the people loitering in alleys and doorways to see why this once lovely city is ridden with decay.

Universal healthcare will make this much worse. The healthcare program will be a political leash on citizens. It will be run, not to provide medical care but to keep politicians in office. In 15 years it will eat, digest and defecate every single penny the government has and benefit us not at all.

Watch the bridges then.
-- Jay Molyneaux
Quit, Cut & Run, USA

The beginning of the end of effective transportation systems will eventually be attributed to the Clinton Administration and those that went along with the idea that there should be Metropolitan and Rural Planning Organizations. These groups are required by law to exist and are the perfect infiltration route for the eco-freaks and any other group that seeks to have a disproportionate influence on transportation policy. As a group they lack the technical expertise an inclination to pick a good project from a bad project, especially from a financial or taxpayers standpoint.

The MPO and the RPO took away much of the planning process of the local state highway department. That system was not perfect and never seemed perfect until this system of politicians took over the setting of priorities. We still suffer with the Clinton Administration's version of cost-benefit analysis that allows any and all feel good aspects of public policy to acquire a dollar amount of worth no matter how intangible the concept or improbable the calculation. That process is still within OMB Circular 94.

Many states, desperate to control costs and frustrated with project selection have tried to mandate objective project selection so that the biggest bang for the buck could be obtained. Every one that was ever invented never lived long enough to do any good after the economic development crowd demanded special privileges. Usually the culprit is a loathing of one type of transportation to compete with the other. This means that the losers get to move in and dine off of the state trust fund even thought they do practically nothing for transportation as a whole.

The most dramatic proof of the failure of the cost-benefit proxy system of project selection is in the government statistics that show that allegedly safer roads have had little or no impact on the cost of buying insurance and the accident and injury rate. These inflation adjusted costs are going up while the cost of gas is stable.

Our city cousins in Tennessee will be asked to pay 15 cents per vehicle mile as tolls to get rid of the congestion in Nashville or Knoxville that is caused by over building country roads with excess capacity and in general ignoring urban needs. The country cousins expect to use their economic development highways at a little over 2 cents per vehicle mile. Everything wrong with transportation is wrong with socialism. There is no plan for the time when the rich tire of the income transfers.
-- Danny L. Newton
Cookeville, Tennessee

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS
Re: Christopher Orlet's Canned Koran:

In 950 words, Mr. Orlet has summed up the frustration and anger most thinking Americans feel when faced with political correctness and the double standard applied to most Americans' religion. Who says Islam is equal to or better than Christianity and when does the madness stop?
-- Judy Beumler
Louisville, Kentucky

Thanks for the article about Muslims and the double standard. This country better get real! I am a Christian and NOBODY cares about my "feelings" or my religion! I am so sick of Muslims and their hateful religion and the stupid liberals who buy into this crap!

Please, please, please, more articles on the beheaders nonsense and the pending ruination of America as we USED TO KNOW IT.
-- Carol A. Milanese

Letter to the Editor

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