Humpty Dumpty Country (Bill Cope, Boise Weekly - May 27, 2015)

[IDemo]

Coincidentally, just a day before _____________ Dam in the state of ___________ collapsed and a wall of water and mud swept through the _____________ Valley, destroying all and everyone before it, the U.S. Congress once again cut by half the budget for the Federal Corps of Dam and Reservoir Integrity, leaving only three inspectors to appraise condition and safety concerns of nearly 75,000 dams spread from coast to coast. As relief workers from the various volunteer non-governmental agencies that have struggled to take the place of the long-defunct FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) worked their way to the scene of the disaster, they were hampered by highways in such dismal states of repair that their trucks were disappearing into potholes the size of alpine glacial crevasses, and the freight cars carrying in relief supplies were derailing at a rate of one out of every two. President ________ had to survey the devastation from the air, as there were no airports within a reasonable distance of the scene on which it was safe enough to land Air Force One, due to crumbling tarmacs and flight control facilities that had not been upgraded since before she was born.

It is estimated that two thirds of the casualties expired in the days following the tragedy—freezing and starving to death for the most part—simply because no one could reach them to help.

•••

Oh, hey. Didn't mean to alarm. None of that's happened—yet. I was just trying to imagine the future of America as Republicans must see it.

That would assume Republicans see a future for America, wouldn't it? It would assume they have the capacity and curiosity to extrapolate the inevitable consequences of their domestic infrastructure policies—which basically boil down to 1.) deny Democrats the funding to build new infrastructure; 2) underfund every existing sector of public works they can get away with; and 3) transfer the money saved to the richest people in America in the form of tax cuts. Of course, it would assume they give a good goddamn whether there is a future for America, yes?

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