re: #100 lawhawk

Yup. Gas taxes aren’t keeping up with higher fuel economy and lower consumption, and other sources aren’t filling the gap either. State taxes aren’t keeping up with infrastructure needs either.

The ARRA of 2009 did help close the gap to some degree, but that was a one-shot, and the nation needs a long term sustained investment in infrastructure and not just highways and bridges. There’s a ton of infrastructure needs that needs replacement - anything from when the Interstate Highway System was built out in the 1950s and meeting the end of its functional life to bridges and systems built at the end of the 1800s.

There’s also sewage systems that need modernization and upgrades, water delivery systems that need upgrades, and a power grid that need to be far more robust to handle natural disasters of all flavors.

It takes money, and the cost cutting GOP pays lip service to infrastructure all while they continue cutting the very programs that sustain infrastructure over the long term.

Sadly, the Free Market GOP doesn’t seem to get that Market’s can’t survive if farmers/manufacturers don’t have infrastructure to get their goods to said market. Perhaps they just want to outsource the construction and have privateers charge tolls on each bridge to recoup their costs.