Of course we need infrastructure spending.
The problem is the money is spent on bullshit to appease donors before it’s spent on vital infrastructure because the quality of our political leaders is dogshit.
So…
Under my administration, I’ll engage in infrastructure spending.
Money must be spent on roads, bridges, drainage, and breakwaters first.
Priority will be lowest rated to highest rated.
No money will be spent of frivolities (bike lanes, Pride flag crosswalks, high speed rail for wealthy suburbanites to get to the downtown art district faster) before every bridge is in good shape, all the potholes are gone, and everything drains correctly.
My administration has the exclusive right to audit a locale to determine if this has been done.
Any violation will result in the prosecution and imprisonment in a federal penitentiary of all locale leaders for embezzlement of government funds, and having their personal assets seized to go towards more infrastructure spending.
If the frivolous project benefits a political donor, i.e., some wealthy developer or neighborhood gets a bike lanes from their million dollar townhouses to a Whole Foods or farmers market, I seize their assets too.
Strike the fear of God into to donor class as well.
I used to be a conservative but the corruption and grift has turned me into a populist authoritarian.
I didn’t want to become this way, but when I have to swerve around potholes and there are no plows for the snow, but downtown gets gay crosswalks and bike lanes to the Whole Foods (again, I’m not making these examples up) my transformation is understandable.
Can a crosswalk be gay? Maybe it has gender dysphoria and thinks that it might be a loading zone.
If roads can be racist, I suppose crosswalks can be gay.
P.S. I grew up in a time before the term “Bike Lane” existed. I rode my bike all over our small town with only a couple cases of road rash, no unfortunate interactions with traffic. My fault, a bike lane wouldn’t have kept me from the resulting skinned knees.
You and millions of us. IF the gop wins in November We the People HAVE to light a fire under thier ass and never let up a single tiny bit
They better or “light a fire under their ass” will go from figure of speech to actual event.
Tar, feathers, rail, some assembly required.
You need to go for the “two birds, one stone” solutions:
Fill the potholes with the corrupt local politicians and their entitled beneficiaries.
It won’t take many such lessons to drive the point well home, and people will talk about it for centuries afterwards as what happens when government gets serious about cracking down on the leeches in the system.
Except the politician’s bodies do not have the mechanical and physical properties to make a lasting pothole patch. You would have to use a different politician every other day.
That would be … HMMM?
You’re catching on… 🙂
Hate to burst your bubble there j.kb, but most of what you are asking for is already there for conventional infrastructure spending. (Federal Highways, etc…)
Grants to state and municipal governments have a tremendous amount of oversight. Penalties for non-compliance are not terribly scary though. Do not build what you were supposed to results in a loss of future grants for a few years. Most politicians do not care.
When it goes wrong is these massive budget infusions for “infrastructure” spending. Especially from the democrats. Under the Trump administration, the infrastructure spending bill simply plussed up the current budgets of federal agencies.
But, not under democrats. That spending comes with strings, all of which say “make me look good to my voters/special interests/donors.” Oh… and spend it immediately. Hint, most state/local governments do not have designs sitting on a shelf waiting for money to appear.
Why would your administration spend any money on state and local responsibilities? Other than ports, airports, and highways, I don’t really see room for federal infrastructure spending. Period.