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Economy
Related: About this forumKrugman: Build We Won’t
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/opinion/paul-krugman-build-we-wont.htmlBut no. We cant simply write a check to the highway fund, were told, because that would increase the deficit. And deficits are evil, at least when theres a Democrat in the White House, even if the government can borrow at incredibly low interest rates. And we cant raise gas taxes because that would be a tax increase, and tax increases are even more evil than deficits. So our roads must be allowed to fall into disrepair.
If this sounds crazy, thats because it is. But similar logic lies behind the overall plunge in public investment. Most such investment is carried out by state and local governments, which generally must run balanced budgets and saw revenue decline after the housing bust. But the federal government could have supported public investment through deficit-financed grants, and states themselves could have raised more revenue (which some but not all did). The collapse of public investment was, therefore, a political choice.
Whats useful about the looming highway crisis is that it illustrates just how self-destructive that political choice has become. Its one thing to block green investment, or high-speed rail, or even school construction. Im for such things, but many on the right arent. But everyone from progressive think tanks to the United States Chamber of Commerce thinks we need good roads. Yet the combination of anti-tax ideology and deficit hysteria (itself mostly whipped up in an attempt to bully President Obama into spending cuts) means that were letting our highways, and our future, erode away.
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Krugman: Build We Won’t (Original Post)
eridani
Jul 2014
OP
mbperrin
(7,672 posts)1. About as well as can be said.
Should be building and repairing at bargain rates, but instead, we go backwards.
At the state level, too. In Texas, for the first time since 1938, 83 miles of highway will be built as gravel road, not pavement. Imagine! 76 years of progress gone in a breath!
FogerRox
(13,211 posts)4. Yup, Interest rates are low, its a good time to borrow
Response to eridani (Original post)
Cayenne This message was self-deleted by its author.
eridani
(51,907 posts)3. Feminists had no particular opinion one way or another
Liberals mostly thought it was inadequate, which is basically what Krugman is saying here.