No One Could Have Imagined…
The collapse of the bridge came as a complete surprise; no one thought there was a problem, right? Well, not exactly true:
Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog notes the Putting People First program proposed by candidate and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in June of 1992 that proposed spending $20 billion per year for 4 years to rehabilitate the crumbling US infrastructure, but the deficits run up by Reagan and Bush policies of the previous 12 years, caused Congress to ignore it.
Fallenmonk found a listing of the American Society of Civil Engineers that notes that the infrastructure Doesn’t Last Forever. There is a lot of maintenance that has been deferred to the point that maintenance must give way to replacement.
As for the specific bridge, Rook of Rook’s Rant notes that the Mn/DOT Opted Against Repairs to a bridge they knew had problems.
So, for 15 years at a minimum people have been talking about the problems, but no one has done anything because the money required was given away in tax breaks for the wealthy. When we had a surplus for a couple of years, it never occurred to a Republican to pay off the national debt to reduce the cost of servicing that debt, one of the bigger items in the budget. No, the surplus was squandered in a short term give away that has produced nothing for the nation, and a pointless war that continues to increase the debt.
How many more people are going to die for Paris Hilton’s tax cut?
