ASCE Assigns Grade of D to Nation’s Infrastructure
I came across this article from the ASCE’s website and I thought it would be appropriate if I shared it.
The entire copy of the article can be found on the ASCE’s website.
Because decades of underfunding and inattention have endangered our nation’s infrastructure, $2.2 trillion in repairs and upgrades is needed over the next five years to meet adequate conditions. That’s the conclusion of ASCE’s new 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, which assigns an overall grade of D to the nation as well as individual grades in 15 infrastructure categories. Since ASCE’s last assessment in 2005, there has been little change in the condition of America’s roads, bridges, drinking water systems, and other public works. With the nation’s infrastructure receiving renewed attention from the White House, Congress, and the public as a vital part of an economic stimulus package, the Report Card offers informed guidance from professional engineers on where funds would best be spent.
- Your voice is still needed in Congress — now more than ever! As the Senate and House work to iron out the differences between each chamber’s economic stimulus plans, let them know that the final package should contain more investment in infrastructure. Contact your legislators today via ASCE’s online tool here.
- Details of the new Report Card, including grades in the 15 categories, suggestions for solutions, and more, are available here.
- Share your comments and track the progress of action in Washington in ASCE’s blog, Our Failing Infrastructure.
- ASCE has issued a series of Principles for Infrastructure Stimulus Investment to guide Congress and the White House in developing an effective economic recovery package. Read the criteria here.
- ASCE President Wayne Klotz discusses the Report Card findings in a video interview with Environment & Energy’s E&ETV; watch it here. Klotz also explains why more infrastructure funding in the economic recovery package would make it a stronger stimulus. Read his op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle here.
Additional Reading:
The so-called “Obama Stimulus” plan amounts to giant-sized pork barerl spending, a wish-list of pent-up Democrat pork spending denied over the last 12 years of Republican-controlled Congresses.Only one-fifth of the Obama Pork Plan shall be allocated to infrastructure-like projects, mostly states’ roads.Four-fifths of the Obama Pork Plan (OPP) gets allocated to failed states governments with their union workers, and failed public education with its union workers.Considering a $420 billion FY deficit is a boondoggle (a typical Bush the Lesser budget), an $850 billion FY deficit is a double-plus waste.Yet, collapse is coming. The insolvency of the U.S. is here, nearly.When the day comes that the cumulative U.S. Government debt (wrongly named “national debt”) exceeds the GDP of America, the U.S. Government shall be bankrupt, insolvent, done.Foreigners shall refuse to sell us oil and all the other stuff we import. America shall turn into one big Iceland, without a bailout coming since foreigners shall decree the U.S. dollar as worthless and thus far, all IMF bailout money has been U.S. dollars.U.S. Big Government Collectivism is a failure. The perverse Political Class of Politicians, Central Bankers and Fortune 100 CEOs along with their moronic hand-maidens from Academia (PhD Economists, Sociologists) and Mainstream Media (New York Times, Wall St. Journal, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and countless others) have run their collectivist system into the ground.Always, Collectivism fails as greed drives too many factions engage in ever greedier takings from the defenseless productive ones.Until the 16th Amendment gets repealed to stop Americans from working as wage slaves to politicians; Until the 17th Amendment gets repealed so citizens of states through their legislators can control their part of the U.S. Senate; until Popular Representation gets restored to the House to reflect the founders’ ratio of 1 representative to 30,000 Americans; until the Federal Reserve gets disbanded and a free market in money and credit arises; Americans shall suffer under the U.S. style of Collectivism, a thoroughgoing failure, a source of tremendous misery worldwide, a killing machine responsible for millions of murders (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan).Collapse would be the best medicine for Americans, medicine that would awaken them from the insanity.Instead, Americans seem to be in denial about their government and their lives. They cannot see they live under Collectivism, a collectivism not much different than Stalin U.S.S.R., Hitler NAZI Germany or Mussolini Fascist Italy.Instead, Americans worry about their Celebrity Idols, if they have enough credit card balance to buy some more imported plastic or another super-sizing make-me-fat nutrition-less fast-food meal.
It is deplorable that America’s infrastructure is in such disrepair. There are many reasons but two stand out. Compared to Europe, the U.S. is ancient. Much of their infrastructure has been rebuilt since 1945, while the U.S did not suffer any comparable damage at home from World War II. Also, taxes paid in Europe can be applied more for social services including infrastructure, while the U.S. is obligated to spend a disproportionate amount on military adventurism, empire building and high profit military contracts supported by both political parties. The chances of this being changed are virtually nil. Get used to it.