The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. infrastructure a grade of “D” across the board

Around 2.2 Trillion needed...
http://www.asce.org/reportcard/

Tick tock goes the old clock.

Around 2.2 Trillion needed...
http://www.asce.org/reportcard/ Originally Posted by SEE3772

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/76b51fd2-0...44feabdc0.html

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...aiting-action/

http://chicagoist.com/2012/09/06/cli...support_of.php

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/76b51fd2-0...44feabdc0.html

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...aiting-action/

http://chicagoist.com/2012/09/06/cli...support_of.php Originally Posted by Sensia

Sounds loving!
Do you trust Bankers and Politicians?
I don't even trust the start up figure of 2.2 trillion.
Especially now that the Federal Reserve will be buying $85 Billion worth of securities till the end of the year.
Then, Endless QE... ENDLESS!
The FED says $40 billion every month?
You know that number will be much much higher.
When will the FED buy the Mortgage Backed Securities?
Insider trading anyone? Market fluctuation on the day of the purchase
before and after. Like to have an algorithm for that! anyway side issue, my bad. Just like TARP. A scam just like ENDLESS! QE. Both scams to purchase Mortgage Backed Securities. Remember TARP was supposed to help underwater home owners! Oh! But, the next day they changed their mind, remember? As of two years ago the real number is $23.7 trillion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JTXlNAljE

I have a better idea...
Why not cut the annual trillion dollar plus Defense spending.
Does America really need 160 military bases world wide?
Spend that money here in America!
I'm really tired of paying taxes to help fund bombing sovereign countries
and killing innocent people.
Also, cut most of the billions in annual foreign aid.
America needs more domestic aid!
U.S. Foreign Aid to the United Nations and Israel would be the first on my list. Seen GAZA lately? Trusting Bankers and Politicians is going to turn America into a Banana Republic just like Honduras... which American corporations own.

Peace

How'd we manage to get a D!! If you look at the roads I drive out in the country, it would be an F-.

"Grade" inflation.

If the Addicks and Barker Dams Fail

They've already been labeled "high risk." Experts say the resulting damage could be bigger than Katrina in New Orleans.



The psychic's office at South Highway 6's Briarhills Parkways strip mall would be one of the first ones to go. Later, jungle gyms and mailboxes painted in Texas state flag colors might join the bobbing televisions and tombstones from Memorial Oaks Cemetery in the crude river that's been formed by a breached Barker Dam.

For more than 60 years, the Addicks and Barker dams have prevented an estimated $4.6 billion in flooding damages by limiting large amounts of water from reaching flood-prone Buffalo Bayou. But the dams, once located in the rural nothingness of Harris and Fort Bend counties, have been pushed to their limits, largely due to all of the people and buildings that currently coexist upstream and downstream of the dams

Continued

http://www.houstonpress.com/2012-07-...s-barker-dams/

The greatest threat this nation has isnt crumbling roads and bridges but the electrric grid.
The electric grid is far beyond what is neede3d to support an kind of growth in our nation.
Much of the so called energy conservtion isnt to "save energy" but to put off upgrading the electrical grid.
The ability of power companies to be able to write off the cost if upgrading the grid is being killed by government regulations on caol and nkes.
These are by far the cheapest energy sources for electricty (not including cost of construction of nukes).
Wind will never be able to pay for the cost of new distributin due to the high cost and low output.
Not much chance of building many hydro plants either unless it can be included in a watger storage system where surfaced water is the goal.

Super-conductors are nowhere near commercially viable in use for transmission lines as of yet. The extremely high cost of placing distribution lines underground also makes it less feasible.

The vast majority of our roads and bridges are not the responsibility of the federal government but of the local governemts. If we did things the way it should be done, the state would collect the taxes, fund their own requirements, and then send a portion to the federal government for the things that are required under the constitution.

If we had a non-corrupt goverment that wasn't devoted to handing out pork and patronage dollars, maybe we could appropriately address worthwhile infrastructure needs.

When the nation was sold on the idea of passing the $860 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (a misnomer if there ever was one), it was claimed that a primary objective was to develop and maintain critical infrastructure.

But very little of the sort was done. Nancy Pelosi's and David Obey's offices simply concentrated their efforts on arranging political payoffs to favored constituencies.

The sad result is that now when politicians talk about spending money on legitimate and useful "infrastructure", no one believes them.

People realize that political hacks will just open the candy jar to whatever constiuencies they feel can benefit their prospects for political advancement.

The greatest threat this nation has isnt crumbling roads and bridges but the electrric grid.
The electric grid is far beyond what is neede3d to support an kind of growth in our nation.
Much of the so called energy conservtion isnt to "save energy" but to put off upgrading the electrical grid.
The ability of power companies to be able to write off the cost if upgrading the grid is being killed by government regulations on caol and nkes.
These are by far the cheapest energy sources for electricty (not including cost of construction of nukes).
Wind will never be able to pay for the cost of new distributin due to the high cost and low output.
Not much chance of building many hydro plants either unless it can be included in a watger storage system where surfaced water is the goal.

Super-conductors are nowhere near commercially viable in use for transmission lines as of yet. The extremely high cost of placing distribution lines underground also makes it less feasible.

The vast majority of our roads and bridges are not the responsibility of the federal government but of the local governemts. If we did things the way it should be done, the state would collect the taxes, fund their own requirements, and then send a portion to the federal government for the things that are required under the constitution. Originally Posted by The2Dogs

I think our crumbling infrastructure is just another symptom of the larger problem of the national debt. We have disguised the problem of deficit spending by under funding maintenance of the infrastructure. It's like the guy who lives extravagantly, while his house is disintegrating for lack of maintenance.

You mean like a Democrats house.......

How'd we manage to get a D!! If you look at the roads I drive out in the country, it would be an F-. Originally Posted by TexTushHog

That's not "infrastructure" ... those are upgraded cow paths.

That's not "infrastructure" ... those are upgraded cow paths. Originally Posted by LexusLover

Pretty much. But I've spent several weeks this past year in rural areas of Tuscany and Burgundy that are less populated than my niche of far NE Texas. And the roads in those communities are great impaired to our roads. Not to mention easy train service to Florence or Beaune and points beyond. I had a colleague who said much the same bout roads in the UK. Those roads would have been glorified cow paths 50years ago, too whereas our roads were better 50 years ago. Now it's reversed. Sad!

Pretty much. But I've spent several weeks this past year in rural areas of Tuscany and Burgundy that are less populated than my niche of far NE Texas. And the roads in those communities are great impaired to our roads. Not to mention easy train service to Florence or Beaune and points beyond. I had a colleague who said much the same bout roads in the UK. Those roads would have been glorified cow paths 50years ago, too whereas our roads were better 50 years ago. Now it's reversed. Sad! Originally Posted by TexTushHog

Freudian slips aren't just available at Victoria's Secret.

LOL!