Repost: Bush Tax Cuts at Work — Roads, Waterways, and Skies are a Mess

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http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/08/02/repost-bush-tax-cuts-at-work-%e2%80%94-roads-waterways-and-skies-are-a-mess/


Repost: Bush Tax Cuts at Work — Roads, Waterways, and Skies are a Mess
Posted by Trish | Aug. 2, 2007, 8:41 am

This is a repost from March, 2006. Thanks for the reminder, BlogCritics!

Chalk up another failure for the Bush tax cuts. The head of UPS today is warning that America’s neglected infrastructure is hobbling us in the global marketplace.

Describing the nation’s roads, ports, railroads and airports as the backbone of global trade, UPS’s chief executive officer today warned that America was taking a chance with its future by neglecting its infrastructure.

“What’s shocking, quite frankly, is the inability of our transportation infrastructure to keep up with the normal day-to-day stresses imposed upon it,” said UPS CEO Mike Eskew. “Our highways, waterways, railroads and aviation networks are simply not keeping up with ordinary demands.

After Hurricane Katrina even emergency supplies languished in ports and parking lots. Eskew said you don’t have to wait for a storm or earthquake or terrorist attack to see the problems. You also don’t have to be a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, but they have issued a scathing analysis of our transport system.

“In 2005, here’s what our infrastructure report card looked like: our aviation system got a D+; navigable waterways a D-; roads a D, and rails a C-.”

“What does the overall report card on our national transportation infrastructure look like? Well, let’s put it this way: if your kids brought home report cards like this, someone would be grounded.”

Eskew was especially critical of railroads. As those of us who live near its Jacksonville headquarters are well aware, Bush Treasury Secretary John Snow was head of CSX before his crony status qualified him for a seat at the Bush cabinet table. CSX is a leader in the rail industry at avoiding liability and sticking it to the taxpayers every time its worn-out tracks cause an Amtrak derailment.

Eskew (added) one private business sector that particularly needs to step up is the rail sector. The nation’s railroads are “under-investing” in advanced technologies available today that could improve the capacity and safety of their networks, he asserted.

The problem is not insurmountable, he added, but it’s time “to sound the alarm.”