This week, Lucius Flatley called a weekend meeting of the coffee shop regulars to discuss the U.S. infrastructure and its affect on the future of the country. They talked mostly about transportation – roads, bridges, rail, air – since this was something on which they could agree as a national need and a national benefit.
They began with history. First was the example of the 19th-century U.S. cross-continental railroad, undertaken even while the Civil War raged. It was followed by the Eisenhower interstate road system, undertaken when the World War II indebtedness ratio far exceeded the present national debt. The group concluded that these major undertakings showed that even in tough times, America is capable of investment. They also agreed that these two achievements not only disprove the bankruptcy fears of Tea Party wingnuts, they also show how far the Republican Party has retreated from its days of greatness.
Countries devastated by war (think Japan, France, Germany) began their high-speed rail networks over a half-century ago while the rich United States, with the greatest rail system in the world, chose to not invest. Today there is not a single high-speed train anywhere in America. America’s fastest and most prestigious intercity train, the Acela from Washington to New York and Boston, averages 70 mph, while a similar train in Europe from Paris to Lyon averages 140 mph.
According to the World Economic Forum, today the U.S. ranks 23rd in the world in overall quality of its transportation structure -somewhere between Spain and Chile. Some 30,000 Americans were killed on U.S. roads last year; the road fatality rate is 60 percent above the world average. Among the world’s industrialized countries, only Hungary and Rumania waste more time in commuting traffic. In 2008, the U.S. National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission said that $255 billion was needed annually just to maintain a reasonable level of efficiency. Less than 60 percent of that amount has been spent in any year since Ronald Reagan took office.
Part of the reason for the lack of investment is the U.S. gas tax policy is shortsighted. The basic cost of gasoline (production, distribution) is about the same here as in Europe. but in Europe the price at the pump is about $9 per gallon versus about $4 here. The difference is the tax – an average of $5 per gallon versus 30 cents. The European tax represents the overall costs of automobiles; everything from highway and bridge construction to hospital costs for accident victims – even some compensation for long-range damage to the environment. The U.S. uses such shortsighted schemes as bonds, borrowing or appropriations from general taxes, and this Band-Aid system has failed to keep up with history.
But another reason for failure of the national nerve is the blathering of politicians who seek power through fear.
The founding fathers failed to limit the terms of politicians and, unfortunately, political office has become a career, with re-election the main purpose of Congress. Rather than lose soft leather chairs and reserved parking at the national airport, House Republicans daily enact the fable of Chicken Little: “The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!” We have Henny Pennys in the persons of Dopey DeWint of South Carolina, No-Brainer Boehner of Ohio, Bilious Bachman from Minnesota, Colostomy Claghorn of Alabama and Oscillating Olympia from Auburn.
With this gutless fringe blocking the roadway, and fiscal fear replacing the Cold War as the “wolf at the door,” the country is not only failing to progress, it is regressing. The future is no longer ours – it belongs to the gutless office seekers.
During the 1950s, the tax rate hit 91 percent and growth was phenomenal. In 1993, the tax on high incomes produced eight years of boom with a balanced budget. Try telling that to the new breed of Republican statesmen.
By ceding America’s position in the world, those politicians who caterwaul about leaving debts for grandchildren are really leaving them a country that will soon be a second-class nation.
Rodney Quinn, a former Maine secretary of state, lives in Gorham. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.
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