IT’S TIME FOR AMERICA TO RE-BUILD ITS FUTURE

…Just a many times example of America’s failing infrastructure

It’s time to increase the federal gas tax which hasn’t been increased since 1993.

What exactly is our less-than-qualified, US president doing in regard to this nation’s failing infrastructure?

More than 60 years ago, the then Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower and a Democratic-majority Congress, they empowered millions of Americans to build an interstate highway system that became the envy of the world.  Back then, our nation understood that investment in infrastructure was crucial to creating a better future.  It is no different today.

The interstate highway system was such a success that years later, both parties are still fighting over who gets credit for it.

If our narcissistic commander-in-chief seriously wanted to get more Americans to support him, he should be scrambling for repairing and rebuilding the greatest nation’s infrastructure.  As an example, there are 54,000 bridges alone in this nation that have been declared unsafe and in need of repair, refurbishment, or to be replaced.

This president has said himself that our nation’s airports are like those of a banana republic when compared to those airports in China, Japan, Singapore, and even Europe.  Some of the oil-rich nations in the middle east have futuristic infrastructure in their cities that makes our cities of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles appear like they did in those old 1940’s and 50’s newsreels.

The United States is the only great nation on the globe without a high-speed rail system.  In fact, our rail system has many sections across the country where the trains have to slow down to 40-50 MPH due to sections of track that will not support a train traveling over that slow speed.  Europe not only has a high-speed rail system, they have the CHUNNEL, which is the 32 mile tunnel that goes under the English Channel.  And the trains that go through the CHUNNEL, do so at high speed.

As a comparison, the bridges crossing the rivers in New York were built years ago and are all in need of help, for just to stay fully functional.

Today, our political leaders often talk about their big infrastructure ideas, but they rarely summon the political courage for offering how to accomplish them.  As a result, our roads, bridges, airports, railways, schools and utilities are so outdated and in serious need of urgent repairs.

The latest reports show that as recent as 2014, our clogged roads cost the nation $160 billion in lost productivity and wasted fuel.  Our packed, out-dated airports, they cost nearly $36 billion a year from air travel "complications".  Our crumbling infrastructure has cost actual American lives, and it should not take another tragedy to change the attitudes of our political leaders.

Thomas Donohoe is president and chief executive of the US Chamber of Commerce. Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO labor union.   As these heads of the nation’s leading business and labor organizations, they don’t always see eye to eye on things.  But on this, they are in lockstep.

Rebuilding and modernizing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure will benefit every business, every worker and every family in the United States. It will make every community safer, more healthy and secure.  It will also create good jobs, boost productivity, sharpen our nation’s competitive edge and ensure our current and future economic success.  That’s also exactly what occurred in the 1950’s.

It is so frustrating that despite widespread calls to act, the only response from Washington, including from the president, has been to supply lip service. This talking does not create a single job or repair a single road or bridge. We need real action.

Infrastructure should not be the partisan issue that it has become.  It should be an American priority.  Our nation’s leaders must find common cause that most average Americans already have, and it is time to once again, make America the global leader on infrastructure.

Here are the numbers you need to know and to go after your Representatives and Senators.

An increase of 25 cents per gallon of a gas tax, over five years, would generate $394 billion and save every American an average of $1,600 a year due to a decrease in car-repair costs and lower fuel costs.  In addition, raising the gas tax would put millions of men and women to work rebuilding our nation’s deteriorating roads and bridges.

Yes, other nations pay much more for gas than here in the US, but this is the cost for much better roads and infrastructure.   

It is important for the US to consider all funding sources, including this gas tax, which by the way, hasn’t been raised at the federal level since 1993.

Paying for infrastructure fixes will be a major challenge because a gas tax alone will not pay the $2 trillion bill.  It is going to take a creative mix of federal, state, local efforts and some private resources to make the investment we need.  Every long-term funding option, from payment structures to federally backed loans, should be explored.  However, everyone seems to agree that a 21st-century infrastructure is impossible without major public investment.

Unfortunately, as it always is with politics, neither party is currently keen to take this step.

However, according to a poll released last month, the public is bone-tired of waiting.  The poll says 79% of the voters polled believe Washington must act and invest in federal infrastructure.  This poll is so correct, that in 2018, 79% of 346 state and local ballot measures, aimed at infrastructure investment, were all approved.

What-the-hell-more, do the politicians need to get off their asses and do something about the nation’s infrastructure?

The infrastructure investments we make today will determine the kind of country we will have decades from now.

Our leaders in Washington now have the historic opportunity to rebuild and modernize a nation desperately in need of repair.

Labor and business is ready and waiting to support the passage of long-overdue legislation.

But they can’t do it alone.  They need to continually hear from the American public that the time for delay is over.  It’s time for America to re-build the present, and to build our future.

It’s time to start now!

Copyright G. Ater