Anyone who has taken a recent road trip that involved traveling on our Interstate highways can attest to their state of disrepair and need for expansion to accommodate increased traffic. A large number of our bridges are in such bad condition that they are dangerous. I had the misfortune to change planes at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport two years ago. I won’t do that again. In many places, our electrical grid is a jury-rigged patchwork that cannot meet the existing demand for electric power, let alone the additional demand that will come from charging electric cars.
In short, we can agree that our infrastructure needs repair, rebuilding, and maintenance. The problem is that we don’t have the money to pay for it without inflationary spending and creating debt.
When he was in office President Donald Trump attempted to convince Congress to provide $200 Billion to improve our infrastructure. The intent was to stimulate up to $1.5 Trillion in combined spending to include money provided by state, local, tribal, and private sectors. He wanted to reduce regulatory barriers and streamline permitting, thus reducing the cost of infrastructure improvement – especially in rural areas. Trump’s plan intended to provide grants in aid to train the skilled labor force needed for infrastructure improvement.[1] I understood President Trump’s public statements to mean that his focus was on projects that would maintain, repair, expand and modernize physical infrastructure like airports, roads, bridges, and railways. The idea I got from his statements was that infrastructure improvement would stimulate growth in the domestic economy.
Following their win in the 2020 election, the Democrats used infrastructure improvement as a foil promote spending trillions of dollars under the umbrella of infrastructure – some of which was unrelated to physical infrastructure. Following a compromise with Republicans, a pared down version of H.R.3684 – Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act became Public Law 117-58 on 15 November 2021. To read it, please go to: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684/actions It is a lengthy document, and I cannot do it justice by attempting to summarize it here. According to a statement on the Internet from the White House (Biden Administration) [2] the new law includes provisions for:
- Elimination of all lead water lines in the United States
- Providing Internet access to all Americans
- Repairing and rebuilding our roads and bridges with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users
- Improving transportation options and reducing greenhouse emissions through the largest investment in public transit in U.S. history
- Upgrading our nation’s airports and ports
- Making the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak
- Building a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers
- Upgrading our power infrastructure to deliver clean, reliable energy across the country and deploy cutting-edge energy technology to achieve a zero-emissions future
- Making our infrastructure resilient against the impacts of climate change, cyber-attacks, and extreme weather events
- Delivering the largest investment in tackling legacy pollution in American history by cleaning up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaiming abandoned mines, and capping orphaned oil and gas wells
The estimated long-term cost of Public Law 117-58 (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), as amended, is $1.2 Trillion. [3]
In fairness, neither of these summaries of proposed infrastructure improvements is all-inclusive. That said, there are some observations I would like voters to consider when choosing candidates to vote for on November 8th.
The bill for either program of infrastructure improvement listed above is over a trillion dollars. President Trump’s plan differs in that it proposes passing down the lion’s share of the spending to the state and local level. The resultant inflation from either plan will be more harmful to the country than our dilapidated infrastructure. Unless the government can come up with a realistic and workable way to pay for infrastructure improvement in cash, as the expenses occur, we must not go forward with it.
Better minds than mine are available to devise such methods of payment. What comes to my mind are user paid fees and taxes. “Paying as you go” would slow down the rate of infrastructure improvement, but it would also ease the impact of its accompanying inflationary spending.
Therefore, the government must scrap both plans and start over. Public Law 117-58 should be repealed. Programs, spending, and revenue sources for infrastructure improvement extant before Public Law 117-58 should be taken into consideration in determining what more is needed. Additional programs should be limited to physical infrastructure projects that are necessary for public safety and to support the return of manufacturing to the United States – creating jobs.
The biggest infrastructure concern we have, in my opinion, is “hardening” the electric grid, military weaponry and vehicles, and all computer-related technology against Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) damage, which may come from an enemy attack or from natural phenomena like solar activity. Presently, an EMP event could result in disabling air, sea, and ground transportation. Our people would soon run out of food, water, and medicine. Trash and garbage would pile up in the streets. Sewer systems would stop working. We would lose most of our communication systems. (No smart-phones kids.) There would be no electric power. The multiplied effects would pit over 300 million people against each other in competition to get their basic survival needs met. Millions could die in the chaos. The result would be a complete breakdown of the social order.
Reducing the risks associated with an EMP event is the only infrastructure-related problem that directly and immediately affects our ability to survive as an organized society. It is, therefore, the only infrastructure problem that justifies deficit spending – right now!
Their heads buried in the sand, our elected
representatives have virtually ignored the risk of an EMP event in their
planning for infrastructure improvement.
It is GROSS NEGLIGENCE!
[2]
https://www.whitehouse.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/
(Note: Norton Safe Search has not tested this site.)
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