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. Water and sanitation systems, ports, roads, public baths, forums and stadiums strengthened the empire and tangibly demonstrated its benefits.
The Roman Empire eventually fell not because people wanted to leave it, but because too many people wanted to come in — something immigration reformers might think about.
The infrastructure Rome built lasted for many centuries. America’s vital infrastructure may not endure a single century. Were the Romans better engineers or use better materials? Not necessarily, but they did assiduously maintain what they had built.
Over a land mass rivaling that of the Roman Empire, 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 that the nation has a $2.2 trillion backlog of repairs and upgrades to vital infrastructure.
With every passing year hundreds of more bridges are closer to collapsing, miles of highways crumble into gravel, corroded water pipes rupture, airports become more outdated, dams weaken, school buildings, public parks, utility and sanitation systems deteriorate across the country.
While the nation’s infrastructure rusts and rots away the House of Representatives 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, R-Ohio, 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 Barack 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. They also objected that the amount was too high.
They countered with a smaller infrastructure repair plan of $40 billion funded by cuts to other domestic programs, and that would have required scuttling or inhibiting environmental regulations. Of course, the then-majority Democrats quashed that measure.
So, there we are.
Given a $2.2 trillion critical infrastructure repair backlog, $40 billion or $60 billion is just a thumb stuck in a leaky dike, but even that is too much for the perpetually bickering ideological stooges in Congress who would rather stick thumbs in each other’s eyes than provide for the nation’s general welfare.
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 hundred-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 and is just about out of gas again, but once again, Congress, rather than raise taxes or redirect funds from dubious programs or bloated defense, will only refuel the fund with loose change it finds under couch cushions.
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.
President Dwight Eisenhower, the builder of America’s splendid interstate highway system, warned us about the military/industrial complex. Essentially, he was warning us about the insatiable greed that can rot any society great or small. Fueled by corporate greed and jingoistic patriotism, America spends more on defense than does the next seven highest-spending nations combined.
Nero allegedly fiddled while Rome burned. Thereafter, he was quickly deposed and his successor embarked on a massive rebuilding program that included the magnificent Colosseum. The fiddlers in Congress — those venal, ethically challenged lackeys of the highest bidders — must be deposed and America’s priorities realigned to put America and Americans first.
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. Why do we give a rat’s pelt about Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or, for that matter, Israel? They 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 Baghdad 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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