Stimulus money not being used to fix bad bridges

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090731/ap_on_re_us/us_stimulus_bridges_1

Tens of thousands of unsafe or decaying bridges carrying 100 million drivers a day must wait for repairs because states are spending stimulus money on spans that are already in good shape or on easier projects like repaving roads, an Associated Press analysis shows.

President Barack Obama urged Congress last winter to pass his $787 billion stimulus package so some of the economic recovery money could be used to rebuild what he called America’s "crumbling bridges." Lawmakers said it was a historic chance to chip away at the $65 billion backlog of deficient structures, often neglected until a catastrophe like the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed two years ago this Saturday.

While sold as an opportunity to rebuild our “crumbling” infrastructure, it turns out that both the feds and the states are using the stimulus money for make-work projects. They’re creating busy-work for people by hiring them to fix stuff that isn’t broken, because that’s easier than hiring people to do work that’s difficult or complicated.

Seven months ago, Biden was defending the stimulus, saying that money would immediately be used to rebuild destroyed or broken bridges. It’s still one of my favorite HairClub moments of all time.

BUSINESS OWNER: What I’m looking for are really clear details about how the stimulus package is going to help small businesses…

HAIRCLUB: I would recommend that woman call my office direct and I will be able to guide her as to how what pieces of this package would be directly helpful to her.  For example it may very well be that she’s in a circumstance where she is not able–her customers aren’t able–to get to her, there’s no transit capability, the bridge going across the creek to get to her business needs repair.

Fast forward to today.

This analysis found that:

• Many states did not make bridge work a priority in stimulus spending. More than half plan work on fewer than two dozen bridges and 18 states plan fewer than 10 projects.

• In 24 states, at least half of the bridges being worked on with stimulus money were not deficient.

• In 15 states, at least two-thirds of the bridges receiving stimulus money are not deficient.

Transportation officials said the stimulus program’s mandates — shovel-ready projects that can be finished in three years and create jobs quickly — made it nearly impossible to focus on bad bridges that weren’t already scheduled for repairs.

They’re prioritizing projects that fix shit that isn’t broken. I mean, this is CLASSIC government central-planning at work. The central planners have the money. They want to give it to states to start work immediately so that they hire people. Complicated projects that are actually necessary take a long time to get off the ground, so the feds encourage the states to hire people anyway and get them out there repaving and improving non-deficient bridges while the actual deathtraps are put on the backburner.

They don’t care about us! They care about how the numbers add up, how many jobs they create or save, because that’s how Obama will measure success. If another bridge collapses and hundreds of people die, they’ll blame Republicans for it and demand another stimulus package to fix the bridges they’re already supposed to be fixing with the last stimulus package.

This isn’t an unexpected thing. Nobody who opposed the stimulus is going to be surprised by this, because we understand that it is what it is. It’s just the way government works! To paraphrase Chris Rock, it’s like Roy Horn prancing around a Las Vegas stage in spandex and a codpiece, with a tiger dressed in a feather boa riding a unicycle, and then thinking it’s a tragic surprise when the tiger goes tiger and chews your goofy face off. If you understand the nature of a tiger, you’d expect a tiger to eat your face off eventually. If you understand the nature of government, you expect it to waste money on shit we don’t need, and for nameless, faceless bureaucrats to put our lives in danger for the political benefit of the Dear Leader and 638 of his closest friends. That’s what government DOES.

My Two Dadburgers

We can only hope that as more and more of these stories pop up, along with the stories about spending $2 million on overpriced ham and half a million on new shitters for the national parks and calling it economic stimulus, that more people will take note that government fucking blows at everything it does, and placing our trust in them to manage our economy and our health care and our environment is a more dangerous risk than humping an albino tiger wearing a tutu and bunny slippers while the pyro goes off.