Republican Failures Deepen: More Bridge Closures
The failure of the levees in New Orleans woke America up to the true cosequences of the Republican "Drown America in a Bathtub" ideology. Bush claimed "nobody could have predicted the levees breaking." But the truth is his administration had been warned over and over again about the fact that those levees would fail under those precise circumstances. Bush ignored those warnings to such a degree that while the coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi drowned:
Bush and McCain were litterally eating cake:
But New Orleans is only the most dramatic example of the deliberate Republican failure of America. Yes...deliberate. It was stated by Grover Norquist and endorsed by Republicans from Bush to McCain that it was desirable to destroy the American government...and they HAVE been destroying it until we are unable to maintain our infrastructure.
After New Orleans the Republicans did not learn their lessons. I have been hearing from engineers for years that the bridges in America are unsafe. The warnings were ignored by the irresponsible Republican government until the I-35W bridge collapsed. Only now after people died are the bridges across the Mississippi River being inspected. And, just as engineers have been warning us for YEARS, the bridges are being found to be unsafe. This last week the third bridge since the I-35W collapse has been closed due to unsafe conditions, this time in Winnona, MN. The other two bridges that are closed are the Hwy 23 bridge in St. Cloud, which is being completely replaced, and the Hwy 61 bridge in Hastings that is only closed for repairs before being replaced in 2010. This leaves only three bridges remaining across the Mississippi River south of Minneapolis/St. Paul. That sounds like a commuter nightmare, and one that not only COULD have been predicted, but WAS predicted...and the Republicans ignored it.
This is deliberate neglect of America by the Republicans. From the Mississippi delta to Minnesota, Americans have been put at risk by an irresponsible and greedy Republican Party who would rather give money to Halliburton, Exxon and Blackwater than fix America's bridges. And remember, these problems are far cheaper and quicker to fix if caught early rather than late. So not only have Republicans put us all at greater, unnecessary risk, but they are costing us more money by leaving the repairs until they have gone too far. I hear that the American Society of Civil Engineers (who have been warning us for years about this problem) says we need to spend $1.7 trillion to simply fix what's broken in our infrastructure (thanks to a comment in the diary I link to above for this figure). Proper maintenance would have been far, far cheaper.
As America crumbles, all the Republicans do is eat cake. It's time for a change.
Bush and McCain were litterally eating cake:
But New Orleans is only the most dramatic example of the deliberate Republican failure of America. Yes...deliberate. It was stated by Grover Norquist and endorsed by Republicans from Bush to McCain that it was desirable to destroy the American government...and they HAVE been destroying it until we are unable to maintain our infrastructure.
After New Orleans the Republicans did not learn their lessons. I have been hearing from engineers for years that the bridges in America are unsafe. The warnings were ignored by the irresponsible Republican government until the I-35W bridge collapsed. Only now after people died are the bridges across the Mississippi River being inspected. And, just as engineers have been warning us for YEARS, the bridges are being found to be unsafe. This last week the third bridge since the I-35W collapse has been closed due to unsafe conditions, this time in Winnona, MN. The other two bridges that are closed are the Hwy 23 bridge in St. Cloud, which is being completely replaced, and the Hwy 61 bridge in Hastings that is only closed for repairs before being replaced in 2010. This leaves only three bridges remaining across the Mississippi River south of Minneapolis/St. Paul. That sounds like a commuter nightmare, and one that not only COULD have been predicted, but WAS predicted...and the Republicans ignored it.
This is deliberate neglect of America by the Republicans. From the Mississippi delta to Minnesota, Americans have been put at risk by an irresponsible and greedy Republican Party who would rather give money to Halliburton, Exxon and Blackwater than fix America's bridges. And remember, these problems are far cheaper and quicker to fix if caught early rather than late. So not only have Republicans put us all at greater, unnecessary risk, but they are costing us more money by leaving the repairs until they have gone too far. I hear that the American Society of Civil Engineers (who have been warning us for years about this problem) says we need to spend $1.7 trillion to simply fix what's broken in our infrastructure (thanks to a comment in the diary I link to above for this figure). Proper maintenance would have been far, far cheaper.
As America crumbles, all the Republicans do is eat cake. It's time for a change.
posted by mole333 | 11:10 PM
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