The ancient Romans understood that the cohesion of empire required more than military might. It required infrastructure that facilitated trade and improved people’s daily lives. The empire eventually fell because too many people wanted to come in — something immigration reformers might consider.
The infrastructure Rome built lasted for many centuries. America’s vital infrastructure may not endure a single century. Were the Romans better engineers or used better materials? Not necessarily, but they did assiduously maintain what they had built.
America built the greatest infrastructure ever seen, but unlike Rome, America hasn’t been so diligent about maintenance. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates the nation has a $2.2-trillion backlog of repairs and upgrades to vital infrastructure.
While the nation’s infrastructure rusts and rots away, the House cuts funding on transportation infrastructure by almost 93 percent in the 2015 budget. After the recent deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia, House Speaker John Boehner peevishly dismissed questions about the lack of Amtrak funding and blamed the crash on excessive speed. Boehner’s blustering distracts from the fact that available safety systems would have prevented the train’s excessive speed — had the money been there to install them.
When in 2011, President Obama proposed a $60-billion program for building and repairing infrastructure, Senate Republicans blocked it. They unanimously opposed it because it would have been funded by a surcharge tax on the wealthy.
Given a $2.2 trillion critical infrastructure repair backlog, $40 billion or $60 billion is small, but even that is too much for the bickering stooges in Congress.
Every year, Congress will spend hundreds of billions of dollars for various military misadventures and on policing the world. It will spend a trillion dollars, and counting, fighting the 100-year war in the Mideast, including building and rebuilding infrastructure there, but it quibbles about spending nickels and dimes to maintain our own infrastructure.
The Highway Trust Fund that maintains our nation’s highways has been running on fumes for years, but once again, Congress, rather than raise taxes or redirect funds from dubious programs or bloated defense, will only refuel the fund with scant funding.
Yet, Congress will bestow billions of dollars in subsidies to wealthy corporations. It will lower tax rates for the wealthiest Americans. It will pay Halliburton and other contractors hundreds of billions of dollars to build and rebuild in the perpetually war torn Middle East. It will ladle out billions for foreign aid and disaster relief around the world. It will give itself lavish compensation and retirement benefits.
But, it won’t maintain our homeland.
Fueled by corporate greed and jingoistic patriotism, America spends more on defense than do the next seven highest-spending nations combined.
America cannot maintain its greatness by patrolling the world with its massive war machine, while the homeland rots away from neglect. It’s time for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come home and rebuild our infrastructure. It’s time to spend our money on our country, rather than wasting it interfering in chronic conflicts among peoples incurably addled by theology and savaging each other over their religious fantasies.
It’s time to take care of America and let the world take care of itself. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or, for that matter, Israel have nothing we want or need, and all they give us in exchange for our blood and treasure is more trouble. Wouldn’t we rather repair our bridges, dams and roads than rebuild Bagdad or construct another military installation in some corner of the globe?
America’s rotting infrastructure is a manifestation of its political rot. Only we can fix that.
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