The Janesville Gazette’s editorial Do We Have the will to pay heavy toll for bridge upkeep? or the Janeville Messengers August 12th editorial titled “Is there political will to fix the bridges? ask an identical and stunningly obnoxious question with their titles and solutions for our nation’s failing infrastucture and weakened domestic security. In the face of huge mounting national debt, an unfunded war, failing bridges and underground infrastructure, empty Social Security lockbox and shortchanged healthcare, pension and education mandates and promises, both newspapers continue to sharpen the contradictions and insist now is not the time to raise taxes.
JM Excerpt:We are going to wait for political will before we do something? Cold hard cash is what is needed - not the hot thin air known as political will.
Bridges can be fixed here and elsewhere without tax hikes if there is the political will – and leadership – to do so.
There is no way, absolutely no way state and local governments and cities can pay to build or maintain these super bridges. Once again this all falls under the misleadership and direction of the great equalizer – the Federal government. It may be found that some rusty bolts or gusset plates caused the Minneapolis bridge collapse, but the ultimate funding, awareness and concern lays at the hands of the current White House and to a nearly equal extent, the House representative of the bridge’s district along with members of Transportation and Infrastructure Committees from past Congresses, regardless of party.
Both newspapers also reference Gov. Jim Doyle’s clever decision to save education from the hands of the cutting Republicans. Like this is relevant to funding interstate bridges and highways.
The Messenger's editor(s) would also rather blame the public funding of new sports stadiums and amenities like light rail on the shortfalls that led to the collapse of I35W. In all fairness, corporate welfare is out of control but one thing is clear: at least the tax revenue used to build these works of progress was spent, and not hoarded by the stingy and wealthy recipients of the Bush tax cuts.
I would never believe this if anyone told me that Americans, if given the choice, would rather see their country crumble than to restore taxes on the wealthiest among us. It’s not just being scrooge tight, its…….
"George W. Bush will go down in history as the biggest taxer and the biggest spender ever." --David Boaz, CatoMouthpiece for anarcho-capitalists of privatization explaining that Bush’s tax cuts to the rich didn’t go far enough and why Republicans should promise anything (more tax cuts) to save their jobs, and return to core values by spending even less on domestic common-good needs than George W. Bush has.
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