#2: Republicans tried to block the infrastructure bill. The Trump administration couldn't even pass one. If they had, maybe the PIttsburgh disaster would never have happened.
Originally Posted by VitaMan
The infrastructure bill included $108 billion in new funding for mass transit. Mass transit is a Democratic Party priority because it's supposed to be green. And quite a few Republican Congressmen like it too, if it enables them to wheedle some money for their districts.
Years ago President Obama and a Democratic Congress legislated funding for mass transit, and my city got its fair share. Unfortunately the money could only be spent on buses. And the way things work around here, mass transit really isn't functional. Everybody has a car, and things are so spread out buses don't make sense.
No matter, we bought big buses. And they chugged around town but didn't carry passengers. Or once in a while you'd see one or two people on the bus, besides the driver.
Our federal government in its omniscience, by providing mass transit in our city, increased carbon emissions, over what they would be otherwise. And wasted a whole lot of money.
So, my question, why the hell should the federal government take money from taxpayers all over the country, and then dole it out for things like bridges in Pittsburgh? How much money is going to get wasted when you do that, when you have politicians all over the country vying for pork and federal bureaucrats deciding how the money should be spent? Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to let the city of Pittsburgh or the state of Pennsylvania raise the money and spend it?
The buses in my city are an example of how, as Levianon pointed out earlier in this thread, the federal government flushes huge amounts of money down the toilet. Personally speaking, I see very little back for my tax dollars that go to the federal government. My local and state governments, on the other hand, provide good value for what I pay them.
The city of Pittsburgh fucked up. Blaming the bridge on Trump and the Republicans (actually Democrats and Republicans after Pelosi became speaker) doesn't make a lot of sense.