What If This IS As Good As It Gets?
Summary:
We have Nattered about Animal Spirits, Atla's Shrugged Unnaturally, and infrastructure spending in: There Is Something In This More Than Natural, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Epilogue
"The presidency has too much power these days - Congress has turned into a bunch of wienies, with no stomach to oppose POTUS in any meaningful way." - online comment from one of our SA posts. Alrighty then...
From Wikipedia:
The Nattering One muses... lets have an unbiased group of respected scientific professionals give our PUBLIC SERVANTS a report card which IS a direct reflection of our legislative branch at every level of government (city, county, state and federal).
The Report Card
Every 4 years, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) releases a Report Card for America’s Infrastructure that depicts the condition and performance of the nation’s infrastructure in the familiar form of a school report card by assigning letter grades to each type of infrastructure. On the 2013 report card, the U.S. received a D+ which was an improvement from the D received in 2009.
What does a D GRADE mean? POOR: AT RISK
The infrastructure is in poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life. A large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration. Condition and capacity are of significant concern with strong risk of failure.
Excerpts... Dams: The average age of the 84,000 dams in the country is 52 years old.
Drinking Water: At the dawn of the 21st century, much of our drinking water infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life... assuming every pipe would need to be replaced, the cost over the coming decades could reach more than $1 trillion.
Waste Water: Capital investment needs for the nation’s wastewater and stormwater systems are estimated to total $298 billion over the next twenty years.
Hazardous Waste: 1,280 sites remain on the National Priorities List with an unknown number of potential sites yet to be identified. More than 400,000 brownfield sites await cleanup and redevelopment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that one in four Americans lives within three miles of a hazardous waste site.
Bridges: the average age of the nation’s 607,380 bridges is currently 42 years. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates that to eliminate the nation’s bridge deficient backlog by 2028, we would need to invest $20.5 billion annually, while only $12.8 billion is being spent currently.
Roads: Forty-two percent of America’s major urban highways remain congested, costing the economy an estimated $101 billion in wasted time and fuel annually.
Transit: Unlike many U.S. infrastructure systems, the transit system is not comprehensive, as 45% of American households lack any access to transit, and millions more have inadequate service levels.
Schools: half of America’s public school buildings were built to educate the baby boomers – a generation that is now retiring from the workforce. National spending on school construction has diminished to approximately $10 billion in 2012, about half the level spent prior to the recession. Experts now estimate the investment needed to modernize and maintain our nation’s school facilities is at least $270 billion or more.
A Third World Trainwreck in Progress
The trainwreck of a third world nation that we have become is absolutely pathetic. See chart below for our infrastructure needs between now 2014 and 2020, to reach a B grade in billions, we will need to spend $3.6 trillion.
With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in 2009, the 111th Congress was considered one of the most active ever.
Since the 2010 mid term election in which the Republicans gained control of the House, this has been the least active and most disapproved Congress in history. From 07/13/12 Washington Post; 14 reasons why this is the worst congress ever.
More to come in Part 2, as we attempt to get to the bottom of this divisive paralysis by polarization and bipartisan gridlock by design. No flippin.
- Government "Animal Spirit" spending is lacking.
- With unemployment at highs and borrowing costs at lows, our legislative branch continues to focus on austerity measures.
- Bipartisan gridlock by design or paralysis by polarization, has led to an inadequate national infrastructure and the spending necessary to restore it.
- The above effects government (city, county, state and federal) infrastructure spending and the multitude of companies that would profit from such projects.
- The greatest effects are being felt by an unemployed and underemployed public and throughout the economic food chain.
We have Nattered about Animal Spirits, Atla's Shrugged Unnaturally, and infrastructure spending in: There Is Something In This More Than Natural, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Epilogue
"The presidency has too much power these days - Congress has turned into a bunch of wienies, with no stomach to oppose POTUS in any meaningful way." - online comment from one of our SA posts. Alrighty then...
From Wikipedia:
Jan 2009-2011 111th Congress, initially Democratic majority in both Senate & House. With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in 2009, considered one of the most productive Congresses in history in terms of legislation passed since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and the 89th Congress.
In the 2010 midterm elections, the Republican Party won the majority in the House of Representatives. While the Democrats kept their Senate majority, it was reduced from the previous Congress.
Jan 2011-2013 112th Congress, Republican House; Democratic Senate; the most politically polarized Congress since Reconstruction, with record low approval ratings.
Jan 2013 - 2015 113th Congress, Republican House; Democratic Senate: ranked among the worst in United States congressional history. The highest disapproval rating of any Congress since 1974, when data first started being collected: 83% of Americans surveyed said that they disapproved of the job Congress was doing, while only 13% said that they approved. During the Oct 2013 government shutdown, approval fell to an all time low of 10% .
The Nattering One muses... lets have an unbiased group of respected scientific professionals give our PUBLIC SERVANTS a report card which IS a direct reflection of our legislative branch at every level of government (city, county, state and federal).
The Report Card
Every 4 years, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) releases a Report Card for America’s Infrastructure that depicts the condition and performance of the nation’s infrastructure in the familiar form of a school report card by assigning letter grades to each type of infrastructure. On the 2013 report card, the U.S. received a D+ which was an improvement from the D received in 2009.
What does a D GRADE mean? POOR: AT RISK
The infrastructure is in poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life. A large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration. Condition and capacity are of significant concern with strong risk of failure.
Excerpts... Dams: The average age of the 84,000 dams in the country is 52 years old.
Drinking Water: At the dawn of the 21st century, much of our drinking water infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life... assuming every pipe would need to be replaced, the cost over the coming decades could reach more than $1 trillion.
Waste Water: Capital investment needs for the nation’s wastewater and stormwater systems are estimated to total $298 billion over the next twenty years.
Hazardous Waste: 1,280 sites remain on the National Priorities List with an unknown number of potential sites yet to be identified. More than 400,000 brownfield sites await cleanup and redevelopment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that one in four Americans lives within three miles of a hazardous waste site.
Bridges: the average age of the nation’s 607,380 bridges is currently 42 years. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates that to eliminate the nation’s bridge deficient backlog by 2028, we would need to invest $20.5 billion annually, while only $12.8 billion is being spent currently.
Roads: Forty-two percent of America’s major urban highways remain congested, costing the economy an estimated $101 billion in wasted time and fuel annually.
Transit: Unlike many U.S. infrastructure systems, the transit system is not comprehensive, as 45% of American households lack any access to transit, and millions more have inadequate service levels.
Schools: half of America’s public school buildings were built to educate the baby boomers – a generation that is now retiring from the workforce. National spending on school construction has diminished to approximately $10 billion in 2012, about half the level spent prior to the recession. Experts now estimate the investment needed to modernize and maintain our nation’s school facilities is at least $270 billion or more.
A Third World Trainwreck in Progress
The trainwreck of a third world nation that we have become is absolutely pathetic. See chart below for our infrastructure needs between now 2014 and 2020, to reach a B grade in billions, we will need to spend $3.6 trillion.
With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in 2009, the 111th Congress was considered one of the most active ever.
Since the 2010 mid term election in which the Republicans gained control of the House, this has been the least active and most disapproved Congress in history. From 07/13/12 Washington Post; 14 reasons why this is the worst congress ever.
More to come in Part 2, as we attempt to get to the bottom of this divisive paralysis by polarization and bipartisan gridlock by design. No flippin.
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