Steam Pipe Break in NY

Published on July 21, 2007 By COL Gene In Politics

The rupture of the 150 year old steam pipe in New York is an example of our failure to address the replacement of the aging infrastructure in our country. This is an issue I raised in my book where I sighted one survey that believes we have over a Trillion Dollars of needed repair or replacement of the major infrastructure in America.

YES, before someone tells me that this issue has existed long before GWB became President I will stipulate to that fact. The issue is Bush has wasted about as much on the Iraq war as the estimate I sighted said it would take to deal with the infrastructure in the United States. Again before someone tells me it is not the responsibility of government to replace these types of things then please tell me WHO should replace these essential elements of our country? The States, Cities nor private sources are replacing this infrastructure. When things like the steam pipe fail, they MUST be repaired or replaced. Some of the items in need of work would require years to fix and I wonder what will happen when a major system fails in a large city which would make living in that city impossible for an extended period of time. What would happen if a dam burst and destroyed communities in the path of the water? What if a major bridge failed that was essential for people to get to work or for the shipment of everything the effected community needed to exist?

The kinds of things we are ignoring include steam, water and sewer pipes, dams and bridges. The electrical grid in some locations needs work. To have spent what will most likely be a Trillion Dollars in Iraq and ignore the infrastructure repairs in America demonstrates the total lack of priorities shown by Bush. He attacks a country that presented NO DANGER to us while ignoring ESENTIAL facilities that enable people to live! Other presidents have also ignored the infrastructure but they did not waste a Trillion dollars that could have been used to rebuild and or repair these essential facilities.

Comments (Page 1)

drmiler

on Jul 21, 2007

Replacing that steam pipe is NOT in the presidents purview. That rests "entirely" on the shoulders the Mayor of NYC and his Public Works Department and possibly it's governor. Nice try you old fool.

COL Gene

on Jul 21, 2007

Reply By: drmiler Posted: Saturday, July 21, 2007
Replacing that steam pipe is NOT in the president’s purview. That rests "entirely" on the shoulders the Mayor of NYC and his Public Works Department and possibly its governor. Nice try you old fool.

YOU ARE THE FOOL. Many elements of the infrastructure that need replacement are Federal like Dams and birdies. Also the cost of replacing things like sewer and water systems is so great cities and states do not have the tax revenue available to pay for the replacement. You just keep making excuses and when a major dam bursts or bridge collapses you can tell us how it is not the responsibility of the fed. That will not fix the problem and it does not change the fact that Bush WASTED enough money on a needless war to have rebuilt most of the infrastructure in the entire country! YOU ARE A STUPID ASS!

drmiler

on Jul 21, 2007

And you're a JERK-OFF!!! I can also see that you don't know a whole lot about nothing. The "ONLY" roads that the federal government has "anything" to do with are "Interstate" highways. ALL other internal infrastructure is the state/city/town/counties problem! And don't even talk about tax revenue! Have you never seen signs along side a highway being repaired that say "Your tax dollars at work"? Now smarten up!

Case in point...."Pennsylvania Turnpike" is supported ONLY by the toll money generated. And that is "pure fact"! Also when the bridge in CA collapsed from an earthquake...CA got NO help from the US government to fix it. When was the last time you heard of a dam bursting in the US or for that matter a bridge collapsing due to improper maintenance or neglect?

danielost

on Jul 21, 2007

first of all. all that money that bush has supposedly wasted would never have gone to new york city or any other city or local area in the usa. unless it was declared a national desaster area.

as new orleans was. as parts of texas has been.

second do you know how many millions of miles of just steam pipes there are under new york. this is the kind of thing you don't fix unless it breaks and only in the area that it broke in. ie if it isn't broke don't fix it.

third when was the last time you saw any road crew with the logo of the united states of america on the side of the truck.

the only road i know of that the federal government has ever built was the candain alaska highway and canada maintains that one.

oh and the name on the side of that road equipment was us army.

toothache's revenge

on Jul 22, 2007

huh, i actually kinda agree with gene here.

i think that we would all be better off if the government would be more responsible for infrastructure. but everything comes at a cost. i do think that we should do away with a lot of the welfare handouts and social programs, and a lot of other things that we waste our taxpayer money on.

we could cut back in a ton of places, i could go on and so could most of you.

the point is, our gov. takes responsibility for things it shouldn't and lets things it should be taking care of fall apart.

we should be paying for upkeep of our roads and cities, defense, law enforcement, and security.

all other thing should be handled by private endeavors. there are people who would do all of the things using private money.

blah, blah.

toothache's revenge

on Jul 22, 2007

hey dan. you are right. but i think it would be good if the government found ways of making money, rather than just spending it.

its trickier than just making us gov road crews or other things, but i've thought of this before. what if our gov. had a product, something tangible that we would technically all own a part of, that made some money?
think about that for a minute.

danielost

on Jul 22, 2007

why not let the government buy non voteing stocks

danielost

on Jul 22, 2007

the only product i can think of that the usa has is statehood

COL Gene

on Jul 22, 2007

"And you're a JERK-OFF!!! I can also see that you don't know a whole lot about nothing. The "ONLY" roads that the federal government has "anything" to do with are "Interstate" highways. "

That is Correct. There are no bridges on those roads? Almost ALL dams are federal. The other issue you ignore is that no matter who SHOULD repair our infrastructure the fact is IT IS NOT BEING DONE. It will make no difference if the responsibility is a City, State, Public Utility or the Fed when it fails. The result will be the same. Another fact is that the cost to replace or rebuild many of these items is so great that States and cities DO NOT HAVE THE TAX REVENUE to repair infrastructure. The point is that Bush has WASTED an amount of Federal money (that we have borrowed and are paying interest on) to invade a country we had no business invading. Had that SAME Federal revenue been used to help Cities, States etc rebuild our infrastructure our country would be FAR BETTER OFF then too have spent that money on Iraq!

The other issue that is ignored is that if the Fed had spent the Trillion dollars to rebuild our infrastructure it would have used contractors that would have hired workers. Those workers would have spent the money to help the economy. The contractors would have made a profit to reinvest in the economy. Suppliers of the materials would have hired people and made a profit. This notion that when the fed spends tax money it goes into a black hole is just BS. Not only would that spending have helped workers and the companies doing the work but when we were done would the country have infrastructure that would support our society for the next hundred years or more. Let’s compare that with what we have after spending that money in Iraq. 3,600 dead, 26,000 injured a country in ruin, millions of new enemies dedicated to harming our country. If look at the results of spending that Trillion dollars there is NO question that spending it on the infrastructure would have been FAR better for the people of the United States then on the Iraq War!

Island Dog

on Jul 22, 2007

Unbelievable. Col has found a way to blame EVERYTHING on Bush. LOL.

If look at the results of spending that Trillion dollars there is NO question that spending it on the infrastructure would have been FAR better for the people of the United States then on the Iraq War!

This is the classic liberal tactic that if there was no war in Iraq that the money used there would be spent elsewhere on projects like this, and that is just false.

danielost

on Jul 22, 2007

it would have never been spent on infrastructure

COL Gene

on Jul 22, 2007

“This is the classic liberal tactic that if there was no war in Iraq that the money used there would be spent elsewhere on projects like this, and that is just false.”

YOU’RE NUTS. This has NOTHING to do with Liberal. You are telling me that to have rebuilt the infrastructure that supports our way of life is not better then what we have done in Iraq in totally irrational. If that is what you are saying you belong in Belleview Mental Hospital.

COL Gene

on Jul 22, 2007

Reply By: danielost
Posted: Sunday, July 22, 2007
If look at the results of spending that Trillion dollars there is NO question that spending it on the infrastructure would have been FAR better for the people of the United States then on the Iraq War!

it would have never been spent on infrastructure

The point I raised is that the use of that money would have been FAR better to rebuild our infrastructure then to Invade Iraq. The reason why it would not have been done is because the leadership fails to do what is BEST for our country!!!

danielost

on Jul 22, 2007

The point I raised is that the use of that money would have been FAR better to rebuild our infrastructure then to Invade Iraq. The reason why it would not have been done is because the leadership fails to do what is BEST for our country!!!

yes the leadership the congress, the house, the president, the democrats, the republicans.

by the way the gas tax that you pay everytime you fill up is supposed to go to roads only.

Island Dog

on Jul 22, 2007

YOU’RE NUTS. This has NOTHING to do with Liberal. You are telling me that to have rebuilt the infrastructure that supports our way of life is not better then what we have done in Iraq in totally irrational. If that is what you are saying you belong in Belleview Mental Hospital.

Ah, twisting words once again. Like I said, if there was no war in Iraq the pipes in NY would be the same. Fixing infrastructure is important, but for you to try and twist it into some kind of Bush bashing is pathetic. Get some help for your Bush obsession.

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