by Barry Hastings

Crumbling roads, collapsing bridges, vulnerable power grid, poisoned water supplies, inadequate airports, across the nation, have been ignored for decades by state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. The cost to rebuild or replace the wreckage at all points will run to trillions of dollars, not billions, and the projected shortfall in funding over the next 10 years or so, stands at $1.44 trillion dollars. This as we’re just getting used to dealing with project costs in the billions of dollars.

A full-page article May 11 (with graphs and charts) in the Financial Times, is the basis for this survey. I’m not going to write a six- or eight-page summary; if you want more information, check the FT web site for “Neglected Nation.”

To get you off on the right foot, here’s what author of the report has learned about urgent infrastructure needs as of this moment. Our surface transport (roads, highways, bridges) needs approach 2 trillion dollars, while expected funding is $941 billion – a shortfall of $1.1 triillion. (Don’t look for rapid improvement of roads/highways — Michigan’s recently-passed road/highway funding bill is already outdated and under-funded).

The nation’s electrical grid needs a projected $934 billion, with $757 billion in funding expected. There’s a shortfall of $177 billion in funding to rehab the nation-wide power grid we’ll be expected (by industry and government) to close.

Maintenance of inland waterways (so critical to Great Lakes states) needs $37 billion in repairs, rebuilding, and replacement. Projected funds to keep the system functioning and improving are only $22 billion — a shortfall of $15 billion. The nation’s steel industry (in particular), shipping, boating, fishing, as well, depend on a safe, reliable inland waterway network. The battle against invasive species is part of battle for the waterways, as is repair or replacement of locks allowing bigger ships to pass from Lake Superior to the lower lakes.

Airports, critical due to increased, and ever increasing air-travel, require a projected $157 billion in improvement and expansion, but projected funding totals only $115, leaving a shortfall of $42 billion. Look for more long lines, more accidents, more infuriated passengers.

People in Michigan have watched for some years as our GOP-controlled legislature passes flawed or inadequate legislation dealing with deteriorating roads/highways, medical and legal marijuana, firearms ownership, concealed and open-carry laws (and those who see them as a “natural right”), and a host of laws restricting social programs. Impoverished Michigan families can now be denied assistance if just one child cuts too many school days. Yep! They punish a whole needy family for the error of one brat. (There are other laws doing the same kind of thing regarding drug use by a family member.) None of this is confined to only Michigan. It’s a nationwide, self-defeating trend.

The various states are not the only offenders, nor the worst. Our Washington politicians (the higher the office, the larger the offense) make fumbling on the state level look unimportant. But it all adds up to serious trouble for America, where we’ve fallen into the same trap Europeans were in between World War I and World War II, when they failed to re-build and improve infrastructure (of almost every type). The two best (and most common) British fighter aircraft of WWII, the Hawker Hurricane and the Spitfire, were still being built and assembled by hand throughout the war, stretching the old-fashioned, earlier manufacturing process to the extreme. Now, in many areas, we’ve failed in exactly the same way. Germans had improved infrastructure, and that is why the Air Battle of Britain (Summer and Fall, 1940) was such a near-run thing. The whole British armaments industry was in the same pinch.

Just last week, the President told Republicans their ideological refusal to spend government money improving our railroad system is wrong-headed. Last Saturday, the Federal Transit Administration issued “emergency directives” in which they threaten to shut down all or parts of the Washington, D.C. Metro passenger railway system, “unless it takes urgent action to guarantee passenger safety.” Longstanding complaints of mismanagement and poor safety measures within this second-busiest rail network in the country. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has found much fault with the system, and has often been critical of “the lack of a safety culture,” following a bad wreck in 2009. The system’s management didn’t even respond to a request for comment from the line.

Conservatives say the real problem is not adequate funding, but rather waste, inefficiency and mismanagement. (If so, it’s nationwide waste, inefficiency, and mismanagement.) And since Republicans control Congress, and majority of state legislatures…

Hillary Clinton has proposed a new “Infrastructure Bank” to leverage-up funds for new infrastructure projects. The President has attempted to strike a tax deal with Republicans funding work on infrastructure through repatriation of corporate cash held in foreign lands. So far, little to no progress on either tack.

So, while the nation’s physical infrastructure keeps a’crumblin’, our GOP ideologues continue bickering, pushing half-measures, their war on any program the President suggests, while offering little in the way of real remedies themselves.

Gun nuts at work against angry moms

Ms. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, wrote a piece regarding her experience(s) since start-up of her organization., for the Washington Post. It’s scary, but hardly surprising to those of us who know both the “nuts” and their methods. (Licenses should be issued to hunt them.) “Land of the free, home of the brave,” indeed.

Ms. Watts, who was impressed by the effect Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) had on that problem, wondered if she might form an organization to help improve the nation’s lax gun regulations. She was, “wholly unprepared for the blow-back headed my way.”

“Within hours of speaking out,” she wrote, “I received my first threats of sexual violence and death.” Through the next several months her phone rang continuously, and callers most frequently offered threats to safety of herself and her children. Text messages flooded her, and a new twitter feed was, “on fire.” Her e-mail was hacked, Facebook photos downloaded and distributed, and with her address and phone number, shared online. Social media accounts of her children were hacked, the names of their schools widely distributed.

As her organization grew, gaining seats in legislative bodies as well as in corporate boardrooms, threats of mayhem and violence increased. She blocked so many media contacts, “ImBlockedByShannonWatts” trended on Twitter. Meetings of her group have actually been crashed by armed gun-zealots (probably fired by religious zealotry, as well — you know how God luvs guns, and hates uppity women).

Despite the tsunami of threats, Watts says, “If we lose our children, we have nothing left to lose. We will not succumb to intimidation. We will not kow-tow to bullies. We will not be silenced. Not after Sandy Hook.”

You go, girls!