More Than Infrastructure is Falling Apart in America

If you search what is falling apart in America all you get is hundreds of references to the Infrastructure is falling apart.  I know the infrastructure is falling apart and it has been falling apart for decades.  It is estimated to take 3.6 trillion dollars to repair America’s infrastructure.  The President’s 2019 Budget gives a prominent place to infrastructure policy.  It proposes $100 billion matching funds to state and local governments, as well as $50 billion in funding to rural infrastructure and 50 billion in other infrastructure funding. The Administration plan revolves around a $1.5 trillion spending goal and only $200 billion would come from the Federal Funding.  I am concerned about the $100 billion in matching funds from the States where will it come from. Many states are near bankrupting. Where is the Federal money coming from? All of this on top of the fact that politicians spend less in real cost than they did 15 years ago for infrastructure.

My concern is will it come from Social Security Funds.  The very people who are barely surviving and do not use the infrastructure as much. President Trump, whom I support, has mentioned the booming cost of Social Security and pensions must be brought under control before the problem can really be addressed. The President has suggested higher fuel taxes. It has not been raised since 1993. President Trump has proposed Private Partnership. I think that is a good idea.  Private corporation spend their money to build and repair infrastructure and charge a toll until the project is paid for.  The government regulates the toll charge.

The problem with the Private Partnerships along with state and local participation is the Democrats want the Federal Government to have control over these projects when it comes to bidding, construction and after the construction is finished.  I guess it makes it easier for them to steal funds for their pet projects. They claim they want to make sure the environment is protected.  I also want to note Obama’s stimulus plan failed miserably.  He claims the shovel ready jobs were not shovel ready as he thought and got a big laugh out of it.


We have 15,500 hazardous dams and 2170 are rated as dangerous and must be repaired immediately.  A whopping 45 billion dollars is needed just to repair the dams. There are 67,500 bridges with structural defects. There are 200,00 bridges over fifty years old. Many of the water pipes have been in use for more than 100 years and due to leakage two trillion gallons of water is wasted each year.  The problem cannot be ignored for 50 more years like Washington politicians have done since the 60’s.

Franklin Roosevelt spend a large sum of money for infrastructure in the 1930’ and no large sum of money was spent again until 1950’s and 1960’s for interstate highway systems.  That infrastructure has outlived its life expectancy and we are still using them today.  Also note it was the Republican Administration’s that really tried to address the issue under Eisenhower, Reagan and Trump, but could not get support from the Democrats.

The Democrats are determined not to give the President anything to boast about before mid-term elections.  Politics over country as usual. Democrats claim private partnership would only be interested in funding projects that could produce a toll and they are against that.  I believe something is better than nothing.  Private partnership would certainly help.  Democrat’s do not like the idea because Trump proposed it. Many countries have been doing this type of financing for years.

Robert Farris a former Federal Highway Administration head claims that when the Federal Government participates in any transportation project the cost automatically goes up at least 30%.  He is talking billions of dollars a year wasted because of Washington’s involvement.  One cost increase is the Federal Government requires Union wages to be paid and that alone increases the cost by 22%.  Obama had a law past that any large projects had to hire only Union employees. Nixon had a law passed that requires extensive environmental reviews which has delayed project up to ten to fifteen years. This causes the original cost to be void and the construction cost increases at least 10 percent.  Local bike trails and running trails come out of the Transportation Fund instead of States budgets and cost 2% of the infrastructure budget.  The FHWA and DOT duplicate work at a cost of about 400 million dollars a year.

Who is really responsible for the infrastructure problems today?  It is the politicians for they pass the buck to another Administration for they know the American people do not like to spend money. Therefore, they ignore the problem while they are in office.  The American people do not like to see their money wasted by politician’s but, they are willing to pay when the money is used in a way that benefits them, without waste. The politicians get a D minus for their approach to the infrastructure problems and our present infrastructure is rated at D minus, the same as it got in 2013, by experts.

I think the only solution is to get Private Partnerships involved as President Trump proposed. All projects will not be suited for private partnerships, but many will. Airports should charge a usage tax to the people using the airport outbound.  This would help offset building and maintenance of airports.  The delay now will be Congress has already passed a two-year budget and any additions would take about two years to get approved.  I wish the President would have veto the first budget and if it meant shutting the government down then shut it down. The way I see it we are about $1.4 trillion short in funds needed and funds available.

Tomorrow or in a few days I will comment on how I think our societal problems are contributing to America falling apart.

PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS ONLY MY THOUGHTS AND I RESPECT YOUR THOUGHTS.  I DO NOT PROFESS TO HAVE THE SOLUTIONS. I DO KNOW IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE REPUBLICANS CONTROL THE HOUSE AND SENATE IF PRESIDENT TRUMP CONTINUES TO MAKE PROGRESS – DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER.