It's becoming obvious that the Republican goal for America is to turn us into a country with very low taxes, potholed roads, dangerous bridges, slow trains, and shabby cities - and they seem to have plenty of support for this vision in the red state (aka "places no one wants to visit").
From an editorial in the NYTimes:
...Civil engineers in every state are monitoring ominous cracks in roads and bridges that carry freight and school buses. And millions of transit commuters are awaiting new equipment and long-deferred maintenance on systems that are reliable only when the sun is shining.
The need for investment in public works, never more urgent, has become a casualty of Washington’s ideological wars. Republicans were once reliable partners in this kind of necessary spending. But since President Obama spent about 12 percent of the 2009 stimulus on transportation, energy and other infrastructure programs, Republicans have made it a policy to demonize these kinds of investments.
When the president asked recently for a modest $50 billion for transportation improvements in the “fiscal cliff” talks, Republicans literally laughed out loud. There will be no stimulus in any deal, said Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, the incoming chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The Republican Party no longer cares about what's good for America. They are a party of the wealthy who have lost control of their base. Their base cares only about guns and tax cuts, intent on strangling government at every level, insanely pissed at anyone who makes more than them, and making sure cities decay and their inner cities slump into sewers of poverty. This is a mean-spirited bunch and the voters in the blue and purple states are beginning to gag at the thought of having to live in a Republican-led nation. I was stunned at the numbers in my blue county - where Democrats were sure to win every race - who showed up for early voting and stood in line for more than an hour to vote overwhelmingly for Obama because we were pissed at the lies and arrogance of the Republican candidate and wanted our votes to show it.
I don't know whether the tea party/GOP/libertarians don't mind if America becomes a national slum just as long as taxes are low and government has no more authority than a wet napkin, or whether they believe that WalMart and GE will step in and build our bridges and pave our roads out of the goodness of their hearts. Are they selfish or just stupid? Does it matter?
--Trakker
If you haven't been to New York, Chicago, Detroit or even DC, they got plenty of slums; and guys like you have been running them decades.
As for the states no one wants vistit, you're over compensating; its about time you get some professional help.
Posted by: Dan D. Doty | December 12, 2012 at 12:25 PM
Hmmm, I noticed, Dan, that you didn't answer my question. Are you guys selfish or stupid?
In your dreams (my nightmare), who builds and maintains the bridges, who repaves the roads? Since you want government out of your life and more and more tax cuts, and no government money for infrastructure, who does all the things that the government used to do?
Posted by: Trakker | December 14, 2012 at 10:05 AM
My, you do like your loaded questions don't you. Those repairs are contracted out to private companies by the State and Local governments. And if they don't do a good job, they get fired and those governments hire someone who can do the job.
Cities have found that contracted companies do a much better job then city workers and at much lower cost.
But for you its about control more then anything.
Posted by: Dan D. Doty | December 14, 2012 at 11:11 AM
But who PAYS those private companies who repair the roads? Who pays for the bridges, buses, subways, and all the other important infrastructure that make our country great? TAXPAYERS - our tax dollars! But the right is doing everything they can to cut money for those things. I'm hearing cities all over the country warn that they have no money to fix all the things that are falling apart. So, are you willing to raise taxes, or just let the country fall apart?
Posted by: Trakker | December 14, 2012 at 04:54 PM
Well maybe if guys like you didn't tax and regulate companies within an inch there would be more money coming in. But, no.
Instead you drive companies out, or keep people from starting new business. They either leave the country, or just go out of business.
But for some strange reason that only makes sense to you , Trakker , you think that more taxes and massive regulation some make an economy grow instead of killing it.
Not creating jobs, not letting people keep more of their own money, not people investing in companies so they can expand.
No, just more taxes and more regulations to a make you feel good ... and nothing more.
Posted by: Dan D. Doty | December 17, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Dan, you assume liberals like me are idiots. We're not. Libertarians like you on the other hand, keep making the rest of us wonder...
Posted by: Trakker | December 17, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Right now in France they have raised the tax rate to 70%; people with money are leaving the country in droves. In the UK taxes got raised to 50% and people are starting to leave.
Posted by: Dan D. Doty | December 20, 2012 at 11:16 AM
So the rich in France and England love their money more than they love their country. So what? Where are they going?
Are you trying to imply that if we raise the marginal tax rate on American billionaires to 39% they will leave too??? Good! They will leave anyway once they've gutted our middle class and turned the entire country into a slum. Who wants tolive in a slum?
Posted by: Trakker | December 20, 2012 at 02:48 PM