INFRASTRUCTURE: LET'S GET IT FIXED

Advocate:

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Farm subsidies are not entitlements. Cuts in the military are cuts in government. Duh!!!!


Not entitlements? Just ask the farmers who have been getting subsidies since FDR days.

Adding "Duh" does nothing for your point.

Have you answered my question?

When farm "subsidies" were first introduced they were nothing more than low interest loans against commodities that farmers held until the price went up. At that time the farmers sold the commodity and repaid the loan. All they did was guarantee a base price to farmers. If the price didn't go up then the Federal government would buy the commodity at the base price and put it in the US grain reserve.

The present system is one of cash payments to farmers while allowing giant agrobusinesses to buy the crops at low prices. It isn't in place to help the farmer but to help corporations. If you removed the system which presently pays about $15 billion a year in payments to farmers, (The cost of about 1 week in Iraq) you wouldn't really change much for the average tax payer. They would pay more in food costs that would probably offset any tax savings.

Finn, so tell us what you think should be done about the infrastructure situation.

About the infrastructure
"The bridge collapse in Minneapolis, for example, underscored the severity of deterioration in the nation's transportation systems and other infrastructure. James Glymph, the longtime collaborator of famed architect, Frank Gehry, said of America: "Our infrastructure is in much worse shape than Europe's, much worse shape than Japan's, and China is moving very fast."

Felix Rohatyn, who co-chaired a commission on rebuilding American infrastructure, added: "Whether it's their high-speed trains, whether it's their airports, whether it's their roads or the way they run their cities, European infrastructure, which is financed by the European investment bank by selling long-term bonds to the public, is a perfectly wonderful system." But, no, the American right thinks it's our way or the highway.

You never hear the conservative movement's leaders talking about how the United States might learn from, say, France's successful approach to early childhood education, Germany's effective worker training policies, or Canada's politically neutral election administration system.

Why not? What would the harm be? Well, those policies entail an active role for government, involving budgetary commitments, and the conservative movement in the United States will have none of that. The success of those initiatives in advancing their goals, endorsed by the voters, is immaterial. More government is inherently bad in the right's worldview.



http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/greg_anrig/2007/08/if_its_from_europe_forget_it.html

Rama, good piece! Indeed, why do we have to constantly reinvent the wheel. It is a case of arrogance.

Advocate
Thanks.
Here is one more quote to ponder over deeply.

"But the bridge disaster also reflects a broader and more troubling problem. The United States seems to have become the superpower that can't tie its own shoelaces. America is a nation of vast ingenuity and technological capabilities. Its bridges shouldn't fall down.



And it's not just bridges. Has there ever been a period in our history when so many American plans and projects have, literally or figuratively, collapsed? In both grand and humble endeavors, the United States can no longer be relied upon to succeed or even muddle through. We can't remake the Middle East. We can't protect one of our own cities from a natural disaster or, it seems, rebuild after one. We can't rescue our citizens when they're on TV begging for help. We can't even give our wounded veterans decent medical care.

We're supposed to be an optimistic, problem-solving nation, the country that tamed a vast wilderness, won World War II and the Cold War, put men on the moon, built the Panama Canal and the Hoover Dam. But somehow, can-do America has become a joke, an oxymoron. We've become the can't-do nation, slipping on every banana peel on the global stage. Of course, we've had our share of failure in the modern era -- the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Vietnam War, the Iranian hostage crisis, two space shuttle disasters -- but the sheer scale of our current predicament is something different.

Even Americans' usually boundless self-confidence has taken a hit. In 2002, a Pew poll showed that 74 percent of respondents agreed with this statement: "As Americans, we can always find a way to solve our problems and get what we want." Five years later, the number has fallen 16 percentage points, to 58 percent. Annual polls taken by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion have found public confidence in the government's ability to respond to terrorist attacks, natural disasters and health crises such as avian flu dropping steadily over the same time frame.

Consider our most important national project, the attempt to build a new Iraq. An audit earlier this year by the special inspector general for Iraq found that seven of the eight U.S. construction projects it surveyed -- including the generators at Baghdad's airport and a medical-waste incinerator and water-purification system in an Erbil maternity hospital -- were either broken down, not operating or otherwise substandard. A few months ago, the kitchen staff started cooking at a newly built base for guards watching the U.S. Embassy compound now being built. According to Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post: "Some appliances did not work. Workers began to get electric shocks. Then a burning smell enveloped the kitchen as the wiring began to melt."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080201752.html

Sounds like these appliances were made in China, like my H/P 30 calculator! I recently bought the 30 model to supplement my 32s
and 33 calculators.

As with many items from China, there was a problem. I tried to put in place the "faceplate" as instructed. Namely, "insert into holes beneath MODE and ON buttons.

But...there weren't any holes! So what are we supposed to do?
Make the holes ourselves? Turn H/P calculator over, "MADE IN CHINA"...

By the way, my old 32S H/P calculator was made in the U.S.A.
and my old 32sII was made in Singapore.

Miller
Improving the infrastructure( irrespective of the land of your existence in this globe) is more vital than wasting the energy in other fields like War.
Correct me if I sound impolite.

The following is an excellent piece on the problem. I would disagree that a gas tax should be removed from consideration.


We must repair decaying roads and bridges
This country needs a Big New Tax to fix its big, dangerous problem
NEAL PEIRCE
Washington Post Writers Group
It's time for a Big New Tax in America.

The Minnesota bridge disaster is just the latest signal -- but perhaps a decisive one. The indisputable reality is that our national infrastructure, led by decaying roads and bridges, is in perilous shape. Bridges alone tell the story: We have 75,621 of them deemed structurally deficient -- potential tragedies waiting to happen.

Back in the '60s and '70s, when most of today's interstate bridges and roads were built, standards were lower: no one figured today's incredible run-up in cars' weight, traffic volume and flood of monster trucks stressing our bridges and chewing up our roadways.

More years of dawdling half-measures in critical repairs will trigger many more deaths, make nightmares of daily commutes and imperil our national future in the highly competitive global economy.

Put excise tax on new vehicles

So why a "Big New Tax"? Simple: the repair job is going to cost dazzling sums. And we've had enough of running up deficits for our children and grandchildren to pay.My proposal is a new federal excise tax, levied on the purchase of any new vehicle. The tax would be calculated to reflect the precise weight per wheel -- the wear and tear that the new car or truck would place on our roadways.

Such a tax should average at least several hundred dollars per vehicle. Arguably, that would be chump change in the prices haggled over each new vehicle. But the revenue would be a sure generator of needed billions for the roadways.

Vehicle owners could easily recoup the cost in freer-flowing traffic and less roadway damage to their tires and shock absorbers. Already, drivers in urban areas pay an unseen congestion tax of around $1,000 yearly in unnecessarily burned fuel.

Congress' dreary record on transportation funding enabled President Bush to dismiss a recently proposed 5-cent-a-gallon gas tax increase. Let the lawmakers "examine how they set priorities" first, he said.

Bush then baldly -- foolishly -- asserted that an increase of a few pennies a gallon might "affect economic growth." As my Minnesota-based colleague Curtis Johnson notes, "the price at the pump fluctuates more than a dime between breakfast or lunch on any given day." Plus, the inflation-adjusted purchasing power of the federal gas tax (18.4 cents a gallon) is less than half of what it was in the 1960s.

But Congress could act a lot more responsibly in allocating transportation dollars.

Britain is showing the way with its recent Eddington Transport Study on how transportation decisions can be linked to the country's most critical concerns -- economic competitiveness and sustainable development. The principle of treating transportation funds as investments, carefully weighing benefits against costs on any and all projects, is precisely the antidote this country needs to restore public faith and use our public dollars wisely.

The best U.S. choice would be an immediate bridge and road safety repair fund funded by an excise tax on vehicles (leaving the long-battered gas tax in its political doghouse). Then, with a variety of other targeted user-based fees, the country could develop an even larger, long-term infrastructure development fund, encompassing levees and water systems as well as new transportation ventures ranging from roadways to airports to public transit.

Prove efficiency of projects

Indeed, a federal offer to the states could go something like this: We're making no guarantees and we're not granting any totally free money, but prove to us that your specific projects match clear efficiency and outcome and environmental criteria, and we'll match you dollar for dollar. That would lead to priority setting and sound investments, and would be a response worthy of this century's pressing needs.

Right now, we'd better get serious about the dollar crunch. Especially with run-ups in construction costs, we need lots of new revenue for the critical job ahead. To the visceral anti-taxers, I say: Wake up and smell the coffee. If you don't want to pay for roads, stop driving.

A rather dense collection of misstatements of fact.

George, you are showing your usual stupidity. As usual, you provide no proof.

The Dems are masters at coming up with new taxes....for almost every need.

No one loves taxes, but some of us believe that we should pay for what we buy. Bush and the Reps have spent big and put in on the cuff; that is, let the children and grandchildren pay off the massive national debt.

One of the worst things done by the Reps (starting, I think, with Reagan), is to teach that taxes are bad and, basically, you can have it all for nothing. Unfortunately, we don't "have it all," but we do have a massive national debt. Hopefully, the Dems will bring back fiscal sanity.

Stop, I'm crying from laughing so hard!!

Where were you when Clinton balanced the budget, producing large surpluses?

Once again, I am forced to remind people that the President doesn't spend money, Congress does. Clinton had a republican Congress, remember?

Don't you remember Clinton's threatened vetoes, which would be used if new programs were not paid for by taxes or cost-cutting. This is how Clinton did it.

The pen is.........
The pen is mightier then the sword.
Without any addition.
Advocate
The USA under the present corporate comrades had denigrated its image beyond redembtion.
Have a look the pathetic picture about USA for the lastfew years.
The system is rotten to the core and the people are still dreaming with their fantasy.

Rama, hear, hear!

I might mention also that Gingrich had proposed some big tax cuts, which Clinton shot down with threatened vetoes to avoid breaking the budget. It is nonsense to give Gingrich credit for surpluses.

Excuse me please
I am not expected to air my views as I did in Abuzz( some old chatter had cautioned).
Infrastucture in USA is not like landing in moon..
The fantasy= Dream
becomes nightmare to many.
I wish and I hope USA alighn with 98 percent of the population around the globe.