BCT Editorial – 8/7/07

This page was last updated on August 27, 2007.

Bitter harvest; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 7, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The collapse of the bridge in Minnesota should serve a wake-up call as to the deplorable state of the nation’s infrastructure.

“But chances are it won’t.

“Our country’s roads and bridges have been deteriorating for decades, and the situation has gotten to the point that more than 70,000 of the country’s 607,363 bridges are rated structurally deficient.

“The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates it would cost more than $188 billion, or at least $9.4 billion a year over 20 years, to address the problem. (Pennsylvania alone has an $8 billion backlog of bridge repair needs.)

“The Associated Press reported the Federal Highway Administration, in a separate cost estimate, has said addressing the backlog of needed bridge repairs would take at least $55 billion. It’s probably more than that because that estimate was made five years ago.

“Gregory Cohen, president of the American Highway Users Alliance, an advocacy group representing a wide range of motorists, told The AP engineers have estimated $75 billion a year is needed just to keep highways and bridges from further deterioration, but that only around $60 billion a year is being provided.

“Clearly, the United States is underinvesting in its road and bridges.

“Part of the problem rests with members of Congress. In addition to being unwilling to increase the 18.3 cents a gallon in federal taxes on gasoline, which hasn’t changed since 1993, they’re more interested in landing pork-barrel projects for back home than they are in governing responsibly.

“The same holds at the state level. Because they don’t want to increase the state’s gasoline tax, Gov. Ed Rendell and lawmakers are using one-time gimmicks like imposing tolls on Interstate 80 to fund highway projects and mass transit.

“But Americans have their priorities mixed up, too. They don’t mind dropping thousands of dollars on the most up-to-date televisions with all the fixings or hundreds of dollars on the latest high-tech gizmos to amuse themselves.

“Yet heaven forefend that they be asked to pay a couple of hundred dollars more a year in state and federal gasoline taxes to maintain roads and bridges or to help fund research into developing alternative energy sources.

“Our failure to invest in our infrastructure represents a failure to invest in the future. Because of our misplaced investment priorities - thousands for HDTVs but not one cent for road repairs - America’s infrastructure is fast approaching Third World status.

“We are reaping the bitter harvest of the anti-tax, anti-government seeds that have been sown over the last 30 years. Unless we start investing in infrastructure, the Minnesota bridge collapse will be among the first of many bitter harvests.”

[RWC] I’m lazy, so below I’ll simply quote what I wrote in a comment on the Times website.

“The bottom line of this editorial is that taxpayers aren’t taxed enough and that we’re selfish for resisting more taxes. That’s summed up by ‘We are reaping the bitter harvest of the anti-tax, anti-government seeds that have been sown over the last 30 years.’ This accusation comes despite an editorial (‘Silver lining,’ 7/10/07) crowing, ‘In Pennsylvania, the governor and lawmakers are fighting over a surplus.’

“A source frequently used by the Times, the Tax Foundation reports 2007’s overall (local, state, federal) tax rate consumes 32.7% of our paychecks, pension checks, et cetera. Let’s put that in historical perspective. Our current tax rate is 6.4 times what it was in 1907 (5.1%), 25% higher than its highest point (26.1% in 1943) during World War II, 7.6% higher than it was in 1977 (30.4%), and only 4% lower than the peak of 34% in 2000. If this is the result of “anti-tax … seeds,” consider what our tax rate would be otherwise.

“Keep in mind these figures are taxes only. They don’t include user fees (tolls, vehicle registration, etc.), proceeds from state-run lotteries, et cetera.

“Regarding the “anti-government” comment, can anyone name any significant government department or program at any level that’s been eliminated or cut significantly?

“The problem isn’t that we’re not taxed enough. The problem is what we’re spending the taxes on.”