What the GOP is Missing
The multi-trillion-dollar bill to improve infrastructure in the United States has been mired in political controversy since it was introduced. It’s a shame, really, as the U.S. infrastructure is not only an ancient, collapsing mess that Europeans laugh at, but it’s downright dangerous.
We’ve been getting reports for decades now that our own Civil Engineers give our roads, bridges, tunnels, seaports and airports low marks for structural integrity and safety. Many bridges in the U.S., they say, are unsafe. People want those things fixed.
It’s the new things in the bill, though, that really tweak the GOP’s nose. For example, internet service. That’s not infrastructure, they say. I’d like to differ. I live in a rural area. Our internet comes in from one direction. At least annually, some squirrel in the national forest decides to snack on the cable. The entire area is cut off from phone service, internet service, people have died because they couldn’t make a 911 call from an accident site. Stores and businesses of all sorts have had to close down because they were cut off from computerized systems. Hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in sales and productivity, plus the loss of life.
During the COVID lock down, people were told to work from home — to school from home. The problem in a small town is that parts of town have good service and other parts of town, hardly better than dial-up. If you’re a poor family, you many not have a computer. Can’t send the kids to the library, it’s closed. Kids were seen outside the library, where they could pick up the wifi signal, trying to do their lessons on phones.
Then there’s the healthcare aspect of the bill. Healthcare isn’t infrastructure, the GOP shout. Well, if you’re out of a job because you have to take care of a sick relative, it is infrastructure. Nationally, women trail men in wage earning. Part of that is due to the fact that it’s generally the woman who stays home with a sick child or an elderly relative, especially if those are long term medical problems. The woman’s career is derailed. If she ever does get to go back to work, her skills have staled and she’s way behind the career curve of her male counterparts. So yes, healthcare is infrastructure.
The best part of the bill as that all of this infrastructure building means jobs. Jobs in construction, in healthcare, in business, in telecommunications. It’s guaranteed to make the economy surge. What’s not to like?
At issue here is the GOP’s outdated idea of what infrastructure means. For giggles, I went to Dictionary.com for the definition. 1. The basic, underlying framework or features of a system or organization. 2. The fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, such as transportation, communications systems, power plants, and schools. Pretty much everything that the new Infrastructure plan wants to address.
The GOP hates it. They want to cut everything but roads and bridges and want the American taxpayer to pay for it. They certainly hate the 7% rise in corporate taxes that the Biden plan wants. To be honest, I think it’s long past time for corporations to pay their fair share. After all, aren’t are roads and highways full of corporate big rigs hauling their products around the country? Don’t they use the ports? The airports? The bridges? Don’t they use the internet? Don’t they use the healthcare systems?
Three-quarters or so of Americans want what’s in this plan. Democrat, Independents, Republicans, all agree that these things are needed. Are necessary. For Republican representatives to be so out of step with what their constituents want is just mind blowing. I know I want what’s in this plan. Do you? Call your Congressional representatives. Call your Senators. Let them know what you think. And keep calling. Keep writing. Keep emailing. Remind them they are not elected for life and to get with the program. Or else you’ll find a representative that is willing to do what’s best for this country, not their seats of power.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure
https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-struggle-craft-counteroffer-bidens-104000259.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/12/experts-on-green-jobs-in-bidens-climate-infrastructure-bill.html
