Washington’s Literal Sinkhole, And Our Idiotic Fixation On Deficits
On Tuesday, a “sinkhole” suddenly sank in Washington D.C. three blocks from the White House. Not
a metaphor, but a massive hole in the road as “long as a Ford Explorer,” double the width of a train
car and 17 feet deep. The asphalt eroded around a metal plate covering potholes in the street and
collapsed over a sewer line that was laid in 1897. The sinkhole will take at least five days to “repair.”
There is an idiocy about our current national politics that is simply stupefying. We are sitting idly,
watching, and suffering, as our nation disintegrates into a run-down backwater. Our airports are a
global disgrace. Our railroads, broadband, energy grid are all outmoded by international standards.
A bridge falls every other day. Our sewage systems are overwhelmed by normal use, and collapse
in the extreme weather that has become the national norm. Sinkholes now are becoming a
life-threatening peril.
At the same time, over 20 million people are in need of full-time work. The construction industry has
still not recovered from the housing collapse. The federal government can borrow money at interest
rates near zero. Yet instead of grabbing this opportunity to rebuild the country, Washington is focused
on cutting budgets, an austerity that clearly costs jobs and impedes the recovery.
snip
This is literally a no-brainer. Yet when president proposes even a modest infrastructure bill, the Republican
Congress rules it dead on arrival.
http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130523/washingtons-literal-sinkhole-and-our-idiotic-fixation-on-deficits
