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May 25, 2013
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 A Generation of TermitesPosted on Oct 13, 2010By Joe Conason When American politicians talk about the legacy we are leaving to the next generation, their usual theme is financial deficits, as if there were no other kind. Figured on a per capita basis, the real and imputed debt that today’s children will assume someday as taxpayers can seem daunting. But what our political leaders rarely even attempt to calculate is the other debt that we are leaving to our heirs—a decayed and inadequate infrastructure that doesn’t deserve to be compared with what earlier generations bequeathed to us. The best recent estimates by civil engineers and government experts indicate that we would have to spend well over $2 trillion during the next five years on roads, bridges, airports, railways, transit, sewers, waterways, ports, dams, parks and schools simply to maintain them in decent condition. Such estimates do not include the kind of modernizing improvements that the United States requires to remain competitive with other nations or to protect the global environment from disaster. But the political momentum appears to favor politicians who have no will to preserve—let alone better—the national inheritance that we have allowed to fall into sorry disrepair. The destructive dynamic was illustrated again in recent days, when President Obama offered a very modest $50 billion program that would begin to address America’s infrastructure needs, and not incidentally create jobs in a deflated economy. Although he sought bipartisan agreement, flanked by former transportation officials from Republican administrations, his partisan opponents instantly dismissed his proposals as political. The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell—who has directed millions of federal dollars to his home state for boondoggles named after him—now sees no benefit in federal spending on basic transportation and environmental projects. Perhaps it is understandable, if still deplorable, that Republicans like McConnell prefer to stop any Democratic or bipartisan initiative that might give hope to voters frustrated by slow growth and high unemployment. More troubling by far is the absence of any plausible suggestion from the Republicans as to how they would address the need to rebuild and restore a country that is literally falling apart. Listening to them—and looking over their scant policy pronouncements—it is clear that they plan to spend less, not more, on these critical needs. Republican promises to reduce the deficit while cutting taxes are unfulfillable, but the only way they can even pretend to fulfill them is by slashing domestic spending (especially because they consider the defense budget untouchable). So the physical deficit will continue to swell—and the cost of the repairs that will someday become absolutely unavoidable will continue to rise, as well. Advertisement Yet the Republicans insist that we should not only preserve the George W. Bush tax cuts favoring the wealthiest few, but lavish still more cuts on them—while slashing spending on infrastructure below the cost of crucial maintenance, let alone real renewal. Their ironically named budget “road map” created by Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, would cut in half the taxes for the richest 1 percent of taxpayers, while freezing spending on infrastructure for the next 10 years. Such schemes are worthy of a generation of termites—but not of Americans who revere our forebears and value our posterity. Joe Conason writes for The New York Observer. © 2010 Creators.com  TAGS:
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By Gloria Picchetti, October 15, 2010 at 4:51 pm Link to this comment
Please make voluntary euthanasia legel. The republicans can have anything they want as long as I do not have to suffer from their Nazi decisions.
Report thisBy sharonsj, October 15, 2010 at 2:36 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
That $2 trillion is being spent monthly in Afghanistan. So now we know the priorities of Congress: got to keep those war profiteers happy and to hell with the little people.
Report thisBy "G"utless "W"itless Hitler, October 14, 2010 at 1:26 pm Link to this comment
Conason nailed it. The sacred cow of military spending must finally be slaughtered.
The best thing to do with Republicans is to tea-bag ‘em with truck nuts as you run ‘em down in the street.
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, October 14, 2010 at 11:51 am Link to this comment
We need fiscally sound Republicans back in the White House.
**************
I agree whole-heartedly!
Report thisNow if we could just FIND a fiscally sound Republican—ANYWHERE. I haven’t seen one in over 30 years!..Think we can borrow a few Tories from Cameron to handle the job?
By EH, October 14, 2010 at 11:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
@Steve, you need to put down the meth pipe.
Report thisBy moonraven, October 14, 2010 at 10:55 am Link to this comment
This article insults termites!
US and Canada OUT of North America NOW!
Report thisBy omop, October 14, 2010 at 8:08 am Link to this comment
According to several economic experts the 300 million or so Americans have
already spent either by ommission or commission close to $4 trillion dollars in
the qugmires of Iraq, Afghanistan as well as billions for the preservation of Israel
aid to Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan etc,.
Estimates of the daily cost of maintaining a military presence in just Iraq and
Afghanistan is $350 million. These daily costs began a decade ago [thats like 10
years] and almost all politicians keep talking about balancing the budget while
some 46 million of us are unemployed. Some demanding privatising Social
Security and Medicare and no one mentioning the daily costs of war.
Joe’s title, “A generation of Termites” must be as the French have a way of
Report thissaying, a “double entendre”.
By ardee, October 14, 2010 at 7:06 am Link to this comment
This topic brings back two comments I heard last evening.
The first, on Colbert I believe, came from a staunch conservative who blamed the actions of that Tennessee Fire Dept., allowing a home to burn through lack of payment of a $75 fee, on govt run enterprise. As if a for profit dept. would simply have ignored a non payment, haven’t we all seen the largesse of capitalism many times previous?
The second, on the Bill Maher program, came from another such conservative on his current panel, stating that we just don’t have the money for infrastructure repair or to combat global warming. While that increasingly irrelevant drunk, P.J. O’Rourke, snickered in the background, Maher tried in vain to note that infrastructure and green energy both provide jobs and new money.
Report thisBy steve, October 14, 2010 at 5:16 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
We need another Bush in the White House!!!! Or at least get Sarah Palin in there . No more clowns who aren’t even citizens like Mr. Barry and no more wasteful democratic spending. We need fiscally sound Republicans back in the White House. Palin 2012
Report thisBy Mike789, October 14, 2010 at 4:23 am Link to this comment
“All the while Joey’s party signs the checks.”
Sorry Barbie. Bush signed checks thru 2008 including TARP. And the costs he put on the back burner for two wars and a non-competitive drug plan have come home to roost causing all the Rightees to go squirrely.
You really think new blood in Congress will ever stand up to the MIC or diminish subsidies to Big Agra, Big Pharma, Big Oil? You could recycle them ‘til kingdom come and not cut a substantial dollar. The pressure is just too great. If the TEA Partyers get elected, they’ll crumble like paper tigers.
Report thisBy BarbieQue, October 14, 2010 at 1:53 am Link to this comment
Joey scribbles: (especially because they [R’s] consider the defense budget untouchable).
Well it’s a good thing that the (D)emocrats have decided to correct the situation. (Quick, someone warn Dianne Finesteins husband)
These elites surely take us working class peons for fools, don’t they.
The wars since 2001 have crossed the 1 trillion dollar mark. http://costofwar.com/
Think about that just for a second.
Every single citizen of the US could have been given a check for a million dollars and the war machine would have still been able to waste >$1,093,589,991,239 (One Trillion, 93 Billion, 589 MILLION DOLLARS) on a futile effort to find a few hundred people that hate the fact that the US is marching around their Homeland sporting rifles and every so often drone bombing wedding parties.
The Democrats have controlled the purse since 2006. But Joey, on cue, somehow manages to blame the (R)epublicans.
All the while Joey’s party signs the checks.
Scam artist.
We’ve been lied to, ripped off, and enslaved. Time to make DC accountable. Vote Out All Incumbents in 2010, then vote out the new ones who don’t act like employees. That is what they are. Let’s not let them call themselves “leaders” when they lead us into bankruptcy.
Visualize a Trillion Dollars: http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html
Report this