Our Infrastructure Is Not 'Crumbling.' Repeat: Our Infrastructure Is Not 'Crumbling' - Reason.com - David Harsanyi:
February 9, 2018 - "One of the great myths of American politics, no matter who is president and no matter who runs Congress, is that our infrastructure is 'crumbling.' Former President Barack Obama repeatedly warned us about our 'crumbling infrastructure.' President Donald Trump now tells us that our infrastructure is 'crumbling.' The next president is going to hatch a giant plan to fix our crumbling infrastructure as well, because most voters want to believe infrastructure is crumbling....
"Ask someone about infrastructure and his thoughts will probably wander to the worst pothole-infested road he traverses rather than the hundreds of roads he drives on that are perfectly safe and smooth ... 'crumbling infrastructure' peddlers play on this concern by habitually agonizing over things ... like the 2007 disaster with the Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis even though, according to federal investigators, the collapse was due to a design flaw rather than decaying infrastructure....
"In reality, the number of structurally deficient bridges, never high to begin with, has been dropping ... from over 22 percent in 1992 to under 10 percent in 2016. According to a Reuters analysis of those bridges, only 4 percent of those that carry significant traffic need repairs. Of the nation's 1,200 busiest bridges, the number of those structurally deficient falls to under 2 percent — or fewer than 20 bridges in the entire country. And none of those bridges need repair....
"That has never stopped politicians from fearmongering, however. 'Our roads and bridges are falling apart; our airports are in Third World condition,' Trump claimed during his 2016 campaign. Yet as the Heritage Foundation's Michael Sargent points out, the percentage of airport runways deemed as poor has fallen from 4 percent in 2004 to 2 percent in 2016. And for the past 30 years, the number of 'acceptable' or above roads has remained relatively consistent at approximately 85 percent....
"Despite years of hearing otherwise, there is still no evidence that infrastructure bills create self-sustaining jobs — or any jobs, for that matter. According to a 2010 Associated Press analysis, the first 10 months of Obama's economic stimulus plan showed virtually no effect on local unemployment rates, which rose and fell regardless of money spent on infrastructure projects....
"Now, ... the White House's plan apparently features some attempt to reduce the regulatory burden that the private sector must wade through before gaining approval for building permits. This is a positive step considering the vast majority of infrastructure is still built by the private sector. This should be a goal of the administration with or without the massive infrastructure bill.
"How we fund the infrastructure, and who builds these projects, is certainly a debate worth having. But it's a debate worth having without ever using the word 'crumbling'."
Read more: https://reason.com/archives/2018/02/09/our-infrastructure-is-not-crumbling-repe
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February 9, 2018 - "One of the great myths of American politics, no matter who is president and no matter who runs Congress, is that our infrastructure is 'crumbling.' Former President Barack Obama repeatedly warned us about our 'crumbling infrastructure.' President Donald Trump now tells us that our infrastructure is 'crumbling.' The next president is going to hatch a giant plan to fix our crumbling infrastructure as well, because most voters want to believe infrastructure is crumbling....
"Ask someone about infrastructure and his thoughts will probably wander to the worst pothole-infested road he traverses rather than the hundreds of roads he drives on that are perfectly safe and smooth ... 'crumbling infrastructure' peddlers play on this concern by habitually agonizing over things ... like the 2007 disaster with the Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis even though, according to federal investigators, the collapse was due to a design flaw rather than decaying infrastructure....
"In reality, the number of structurally deficient bridges, never high to begin with, has been dropping ... from over 22 percent in 1992 to under 10 percent in 2016. According to a Reuters analysis of those bridges, only 4 percent of those that carry significant traffic need repairs. Of the nation's 1,200 busiest bridges, the number of those structurally deficient falls to under 2 percent — or fewer than 20 bridges in the entire country. And none of those bridges need repair....
"That has never stopped politicians from fearmongering, however. 'Our roads and bridges are falling apart; our airports are in Third World condition,' Trump claimed during his 2016 campaign. Yet as the Heritage Foundation's Michael Sargent points out, the percentage of airport runways deemed as poor has fallen from 4 percent in 2004 to 2 percent in 2016. And for the past 30 years, the number of 'acceptable' or above roads has remained relatively consistent at approximately 85 percent....
"Despite years of hearing otherwise, there is still no evidence that infrastructure bills create self-sustaining jobs — or any jobs, for that matter. According to a 2010 Associated Press analysis, the first 10 months of Obama's economic stimulus plan showed virtually no effect on local unemployment rates, which rose and fell regardless of money spent on infrastructure projects....
"Now, ... the White House's plan apparently features some attempt to reduce the regulatory burden that the private sector must wade through before gaining approval for building permits. This is a positive step considering the vast majority of infrastructure is still built by the private sector. This should be a goal of the administration with or without the massive infrastructure bill.
"How we fund the infrastructure, and who builds these projects, is certainly a debate worth having. But it's a debate worth having without ever using the word 'crumbling'."
Read more: https://reason.com/archives/2018/02/09/our-infrastructure-is-not-crumbling-repe
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