Senate Republicans Have No Interest In Voting To Advance Infrastructure Bill

By William Teach July 20, 2021 – 7:55 am

You know, when Senate Republicans and Democrats announced they had a deal on a bipartisan infrastructure bill, which China Joe announced and then scuttled with talk about putting all the hyper-left Dem wish list back in, I figured that it was already written

GOP: Bipartisan infrastructure deal has ‘no chance’ on Wednesday

Senate Republicans revolted on Monday against opening debate on infrastructure while a bipartisan bill is still being written, lining up in opposition to a squeeze play by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Schumer and Senate Democrats need at least 10 Republicans to agree to advance a still-unwritten deal to spend nearly $600 billion on roads, bridges and broadband during a vote expected on Wednesday. But both Republican leaders and the GOP lawmakers working on the bipartisan infrastructure package carried the same warning for Schumer.

“He’s not going to get 60, let’s put it that way,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “The legislation is not drafted, the pay-fors are a long ways away. Patience is going to be a virtue.”

But patience has run thin among Democrats who have watched the bipartisan talks play out for more than three months now. Schumer scheduled the anticipated test vote Monday evening and his deputies and Democratic members of the cross-aisle group made clear they wanted to move forward.

“It’s Monday in the United States Senate. That’s Wednesday. That’s a long way between then and now,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the No. 3 Democratic leader. “We need a resolution to this. There’s a lot more work to get done.”

Um, how are they going to have any sort of vote on legislation that isn’t actually drafted? No one would bring an undrafted business plan to the board of directors to approve.

In his floor remarks Monday evening, Schumer said the legislation could be amended as early as Thursday if the bipartisan group finalizes legislative text by then. If not, Schumer said the Senate could begin voting on legislation that has passed infrastructure-focused committees with bipartisan support.

Schumer said all five Democrats negotiating the bill, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), supported his approach. He reiterated that Wednesday’s vote is part of a “routine process” and that “it’s a sign of good faith from both sides that negotiations will continue in earnest.”

So, vote on it Wednesday and we’ll tell you what’s in it Thursday? Does anyone trust Schumer with his routing process and good faith talk? This is a party that continuously negotiates in bad faith. In the case of infrastructure, they do this bipartisan thing, and Democrats are out there talking about either running a two track system and passing all their “human infrastructure” stuff with reconciliation or stuffing stuff back into the bipartisan bill. We know they’re attempting to sneak amnesty into the infrastructure bills, and even Lindsay Graham, who has been a “pathway to citizenship” guy, is against it.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, another GOP negotiator, declined to say how she would vote Wednesday. But she added that if Schumer wanted the legislation to succeed, he would ensure “people have an opportunity to actually look at what they might be voting on.” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), another negotiator, said he’d vote no “if we are still working on major provisions of the bill and we don’t have a bill in front of us.”

If you don’t have two of the squishiest Republicans on-board, might be time to move on. And if Democrats try and play games, Graham has the right idea

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a Sunday interview said he’d be willing to mimic the actions of Texas Democrats and “leave town” to prevent Democrats in Congress from passing their $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.

“I would leave before I would let that happen,” the senator told anchor Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“So, to my Republican colleagues, we may learn something from our Democratic friends in Texas when it comes to avoiding a $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend package: Leave town,” he continued.

Let the GOP Senators walk out. Democrats will have no stand to complain after supporting the Texas Democrats.

Read: Senate Republicans Have No Interest In Voting To Advance Infrastructure Bill »

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Bummer: Hotcoldwetdry Could Maybe Possibly Be Supercharging Poison Ivy

By William Teach July 19, 2021 – 3:00 pm

How dare you! This is all your fault

Climate change is making poison ivy stronger and itchier
Carbon dioxide and warmer soils could be supercharging everyone’s least favorite plant.

It either is or isn’t. Could implies that they don’t know, but, then, when has the Cult of Climastrology ever needed scientific facts and proof?

Poison ivy is a fixture of the landscape in eastern North America and parts of Asia. The noxious, rash-causing weed grows in rocky outcroppings, open fields, and at the edge of forests — it generally loves to take over disturbed areas. It can grow in partial shade and doesn’t give a damn about soil moisture as long as it’s not growing in a desert. The ivy is often identified in its plant form on the ground, but it can grow into a thick and hairy vine that curls around big trees and chokes out other native flora. No one knows why the ubiquitous plant causes an allergic reaction in human beings and some apes. It doesn’t affect any other animals that way, and researchers suspect that its allergenic defense mechanism may have evolved by accident.

So they don’t even know why? Huh.

If you live in areas where there is a lot of poison ivy, you may have noticed that the plant appears to be thriving lately. The leaves are looking leafier, the vines more prolific. Your poison ivy rash may even feel more itchy. It’s not your imagination. Research shows that the main culprit behind climate change — increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — is supercharging poison ivy.

But

The effect has been known since 2006, when Duke University researchers published a six-year study that showed poison ivy grew double its normal size when it was exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide — levels on a par with the atmospheric carbon scientists anticipate seeing around 2050. The leaves on some individual plants grew by as much as 60 percent. Researchers also found that CO2 makes urushiol, the oil in poison ivy that causes the allergic reaction in humans, stronger. Plants rely on CO2 to make the sugars they need to grow, and increased concentrations of it were helping everyone’s least favorite plant thrive. The researchers surmised that increased levels of CO2 in coming decades would lead to bigger, faster growing, and itchier poison ivy plants.

So, it’s not actually happening, they just fed it more CO2 based on their crystal ball reading of what might happen in 2050

Mohan’s research at the Harvard Forest indicates that poison ivy is poised to do well in a warming world. “So far, poison ivy benefits from CO2, and it benefits from warmer conditions, and gosh only knows what happens when we do them both,” she said. “Which is of course what the planet is doing.”

So not happening now? Huh.

The takeaway is bleak: Climate change is supercharging poison ivy, and the plant likes to cohabitate with humans. Which means an extra dose of caution is in order when you’re out in nature. Even if you think you’re not allergic to poison ivy, Mohan says it’s best to keep an eye out for its distinctive clusters of three leaflets and steer clear just in case. The Forest Service found that between 70 and 85 percent of the population is sensitive to urushiol, and people are likely to become more allergic to it every time they are exposed. Tuck your pants in and watch where you walk, Mohan said. “When you’re dealing with nature, be smart,” she said. “Because nature is always going to win.”

And Doom is coming, y’all! This is what they call science.

Read: Bummer: Hotcoldwetdry Could Maybe Possibly Be Supercharging Poison Ivy »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 19, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a tennis court for rich people which should be replaced with solar panels, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on the “Crucial Components in the Creation of Successful 2nd Amendment “Sanctuary” States”.

Read: If All You See… »

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Shooting In Democrat Run City Puts Renewed Focus On Gun Violence Or Something

By William Teach July 19, 2021 – 10:30 am

Let’s be honest, we all know what happened outside the ballpark for the Washington Nationals: a bunch of low lifes/gangbangers shooting each other up. The area itself is already known to be a high crime area, a 7 out of 10, 10 being the highest. Seriously, our nation’s capitol is a 3, meaning it is safer than just 3% of U.S. cities

Shooting near Nationals Park puts renewed focus on another weekend of gun violence in US

A series of shootings over the weekend in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and other American cities underscored the ongoing rise in shootings and gun violence in the US this year.

The shooting near Nationals Park in DC was the most prominent of the incidents, as the audible gunshots sent fans and players scrambling for safety in the middle of a Washington Nationals baseball game.

Other shootings injured children, including a 1-year-old wounded on Saturday night in Philadelphia. They further a trend of heightened gun violence that emerged after Covid-19 lockdowns were lifted.

According to the FBI’s preliminary 2020 findings, the number of murders rose by 25% between 2019 and 2020 — the largest jump recorded in the US in a one-year period since the FBI began releasing annual figures in the 1960s. Findings from the National Commission on Covid-19 and Criminal Justice were similar, citing a 30% increase in the homicide rate between 2019 and 2020 in the 34 major cities it surveyed.

What do all these cities have to do with each other? They’re run by Democrats. The citizens overwhelmingly vote Democrat. This is where BLM/Antifa were running riot with little in the way of police response, often because command held the police back. These are places where the defund crowd was pushing hard. This is not gun violence, it’s Democrat violence. In Democrat run cities. Especially in areas where Democrats like to keep blacks down and in poverty, making them reliant on Government. And, let’s be deeply honest: most of these shootings are by either Hispanic gang members, most of which are illegal aliens, or by blacks. Call facts racist, but, 50% of the murders and shootings come from 13% of the population.

Which is why Democrats focus on the guns, rather than the people. Because the want a disarmed citizenry, at least the law abiding ones, and they’re just as racist towards blacks as pre-Civil Rights era.

At least 53 people were shot in 41 separate shootings in Chicago from Friday evening to Sunday evening, the police department’s incident reports show. Of the 53, six have died, the reports show.

Two people were injured, including a 1-year-old boy, in a shooting in West Philadelphia on Saturday night around 8 p.m., according to Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson Officer Miguel Torres.

So far this year, homicides in Philadelphia are outpacing last year’s numbers, according to police records. Philadelphia reached its 300th homicide of the year in July for the first time in over three decades, according to available online records dating back to 1989.

Additionally, the city has seen nearly 1,200 shootings this year, compared to 938 during the same time period last year, according to data through July 12.

One woman has died and six other people were wounded in a shooting in downtown Portland, Oregon, early Saturday, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Two people were killed and four others injured in a shooting in Sacramento on Friday night, according to a news release from the Sacramento Police Department.

All Dem run cities. This has nothing to do with guns, and everything to do with the people.

Read: Shooting In Democrat Run City Puts Renewed Focus On Gun Violence Or Something »

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Y’all Know It’s Not A Border Crisis, It’s A Climate Crisis, Right?

By William Teach July 19, 2021 – 7:11 am

Well, of course it is, because ever problem is linked to the climate crisis scam. That’s what a cult does. So, despite people have illegally come across the border for decades and decades, despite Democrats pushing policies that incentivize people to cross the border illegally/simply show up and expect free money, housing, jobs, clothing, healthcare, and citizenship. Biden’s policies have skyrocketed this, like a store running a buy one at 50% off get 5 for free.

It’s Not a Border Crisis. It’s a Climate Change Crisis.
There was a time when rural Guatemalans never left home. But back to back hurricanes, failed crops and extreme poverty are driving them to make the dangerous trek north to the U.S. border.

See, hurricanes never happened before the last few decades. Crops never failed. Poverty never happened. The cult screed starts out with some sisters from Guatemala, then

Both sisters tried to reach the U.S. southern border in December 2019, but were apprehended by Mexican law enforcement mid-way in Mexico and sent back home. Since then, they’ve lost their crops to last year’s hurricanes and are bracing for more widespread crop failure. And, now, more than a year and a half after their first attempt, they’re ready to try again.

“God must know why we didn’t make it,” Miriam, 29, says while Irma, 40, listens as she nods and flattens the dough for the tortillas. “But it’s our dream. We want to better ourselves. And there’s no way to make money here. It’s only getting harder.”

There was a time here in Xucup — and in other neighboring villages — where people rarely, if ever, talked about leaving. Most have lived here for generations. Few left home. But that’s changing.

Now, like the Cuc Cac sisters, thousands of rural Guatemalans — as well as Salvadorans and Hondurans in agrarian areas — increasingly are leaving their communities. These days, migration — including the record number of unaccompanied children — is on the rise in rural areas, as an increasing portion of the country’s land and population faces the fallout from climate change.

Well, perhaps they should be looking to their government for pissing away all the aid money that came from the U.S., and not be a 2nd world nation bordering on 3rd world shithole.

And it’s not just climate change acting alone. It’s food insecurity. Malnutrition. Poverty. It all ties together.

And all due to you taking fossil fueled trips to work. Shame on you!

Guatemalan migrants have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border more than 153,000 times this year, according to Customs and Border Protection figures. Exact numbers are hard to know: The majority of those migrants were kicked out of the country, and, separately, thousands of migrants slip undetected over the border each year.

But as the Biden administration navigates the puzzle that is the U.S. immigration system, there’s another far-reaching challenge it faces: climate change. It’s impossible to know the motives of migrants — and it’s rarely just one reason — but U.S. and Guatemalan officials, regional experts and civil society leaders say climate-fueled displacement is a likely factor for thousands who’ve decided to strike out from home and head to the U.S.

So they’re mostly talking to not the migrants/illegal aliens about their motivations? But the people who have a vested interest in making this about the climate emergency scam?

In Alta Verapaz and Huehuetenango, a mountainous region close to the Guatemala-Mexico border, in 15 percent of households displaced by the hurricanes here, at least one family member migrated or attempted to migrate in the last five years, according to a survey conducted by the International Organization for Migration. One of their top five motives, the survey found: fleeing from natural disasters and climate change.

You don’t see many Americans fleeing from coastal areas because of hurricanes. Perhaps if Colorado was offering all sorts of free stuff they’d leave New Orleans.

Climate change, in the coming years, will only continue to exacerbate an already dire situation for millions of Guatemalans, analysts say. In the long term, the number of people in the region displaced by climate change is only expected to grow dramatically — leading many to migrate to more urban areas in Guatemala or head north to Mexico or the U.S. in search of jobs, money and security.

This is all meant to reframe the issue to create a Reason to bring in millions of uneducated people with few viable skills who would not only be essentially wards of the federal government, but vote Democrat. Also, to force through legislation that increases the power of the government while getting more tax money and fees from citizens.

Read: Y’all Know It’s Not A Border Crisis, It’s A Climate Crisis, Right? »

Posted in Global Warming, Illegal Immigration | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Republicans Seizing, Attempt To Make Inflation About Sleepy Joe

By William Teach July 19, 2021 – 6:53 am

See, the problem is not that inflation is surging, but that Republicans would dare link it to Dementia Joe

GOP seeks to make Biden synonymous with inflation

Republicans PounceRepublicans are seizing on rising inflation as they attempt to derail President Biden’s economic agenda and take back control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

GOP lawmakers have highlighted quickly rising prices and strategists believe the issue could resonate deeply with a broad range of voters while congressional Democrats push ahead with plans to spend trillions more.

But many economists expect prices to cool off well before voters head to the polls, posing risks for the GOP’s strategy.

And many economists don’t. Many think inflation is going to continue to rise and we’ll get the stagflation of the Jimmy Carter era.

For now, though, Americans are reckoning with higher costs for gasoline, food, automobiles and numerous other goods and services after prices plunged during the depths of the pandemic.

Consumer prices have risen 5.4 percent in the past 12 months, according to the Labor Department, as the swift reopening of the economy pushes inflation higher.

Republicans have started referring to “Bidenflation” on the campaign trail, and GOP lawmakers are getting theatrical with their attacks.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) gave a speech on the Senate floor last week with a sign that read “The Price is Up,” accompanied by a “wheel of inflation,” making an obvious play on the “Price is Right” game show.

Is this all Biden’s fault? No. In all honesty, no. Biden has no control over the inability to mine for precious metals and make computer chips during most of 2020 and into 2021. He’s not responsible for the price of vehicles plunging…oh, wait, they didn’t. A goodly chunk of dealers started doing no haggle pricing on used vehicles, which would have been below the typical asking price, but higher than average end price. For new cars, they were still being discounted, but, most refused to go negative (yes, new does sell below cost, called a bracket deal. They do this because they make a lot of money in the service department, and have quotas to hit). Now, with the lack of new, the prices didn’t surge, it’s just most won’t sell below MSRP. Used did surge due to lack of inventory, but, is slowly coming back down.

I don’t remember food and other consumer goods pricing going down, do you? But, it is going up now, partly because the price of gas has gone way up during the Sleepy Joe era. But, see, because Biden is president, it’s not his fault, he has no control, he’s absolved, and the important part is that Republicans are seizing.

The University of Michigan’s widely watched consumer sentiment index fell 5.5 points earlier this month from a June level of 85.5, due largely to rising prices.

“Inflation has put added pressure on living standards, especially on lower and middle income households, and caused postponement of large discretionary purchases, especially among upper income households,” said survey chief economist Richard Curtin.

A Fox News poll released late last month found that 83 percent of respondents said they were concerned about inflation.

Republicans say the issue plays well for them because it impacts voters across all spectrums.

“Everyone is pissed off that they’re paying more for gas,” said one GOP operative. “Everyone is pissed off that they’re paying more groceries. Everyone is upset that they can’t find a house to buy because the housing market is through the roof.”

Now, if Trump were still president you know he’d be Blamed, right?

Read: Republicans Seizing, Attempt To Make Inflation About Sleepy Joe »

Posted in Economy, GOP, Joe Biden | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Weird: Why Is Sleepy Joe Supporting A Pipeline?

By William Teach July 18, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Joe was dead set against the Keystone XL pipeline, and essentially killed it off

White House adviser Susan Rice divests from company building Midwest pipeline

The director of President Joe Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, Susan Rice, has divested herself of millions of dollars’ worth of holdings in a company that’s leading a contentious pipeline project supported by the Biden administration.

According to newly released financial disclosure reports and a White House official, Rice has liquidated nearly $2.7 million worth of shares she and her husband owned in Enbridge, a Canadian company building the Line 3 pipeline, which would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of Canadian oil through Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Last month, the Biden administration gave a public boost to the Trump-era pipeline project, calling for the dismissal of a court challenge brought by environmental groups seeking to protect Minnesota watershed and tribal lands from the pipeline.

Why would Rice, an avowed Warmist, even have the stock in the first place? And why is Joe supporting the pipeline? Why is this different from Keystone XL? Isn’t Joe pushing his climate crisis (scam) stuff? Who in Biden’s family is making money off of this?

How Senate Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget addresses climate change

President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats have vowed to push forward a $3.5 trillion budget resolution framework that would fund a clean energy transition and policies to combat climate change. (snip)

The plan involves tax incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, as well as major investments to transition the economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources such as wind and solar power.

The resolution also proposes a clean energy standard, a mandate that would require a portion of U.S. electricity to come from renewables.

Yet, Biden hasn’t replaced his limo with an electric vehicle. A clean energy standard would simply skyrocket the cost of electricity, meaning the cost of most things.

The resolution includes the creation of a civilian climate corps program for young people, which would produce more jobs that address climate change and help conserve the planet.

More government worker bees being more indoctrinated.

There is also proposed funding for energy-efficient building weatherization and electrification projects, as well as language about methane gas reduction and polluter import fees to raise revenue and increase greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts.

Didn’t that weatherization stuff fail during the Obama years with his Stimulus, which Joe was in charge of?

Read: Weird: Why Is Sleepy Joe Supporting A Pipeline? »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Democrats, Global Warming, Joe Biden | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 18, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a rising sea that will doom us all, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Daley Gator, with a post on increased Marxist propaganda at NFL games.

It’s jokes week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 24 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach July 18, 2021 – 9:11 am

Patriotic Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my big fishtank is slowly coming back to life (had old tank syndrome). This pinup is by Henning Ludvigsen, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Zero Hedge notes COVID surge in countries that are most vaccinated
  2. neo-neocon covers masks now and forever
  3. Pacific Pundit highlights three Texas Dem fleebaggers getting Covid
  4. Powerline discusses the return of the Misery Index
  5. Sonoran Conservative tries to define “woman”
  6. The First Street Journal covers the racism of white liberals
  7. The Gateway Pundit notes there are more Covid vaccine deaths than Covid deaths
  8. The Lid covers Democrats fighting against One Man One Vote
  9. The People’s Cube discusses Dems ceding US sovereignty to the UN
  10. The Political Hat calculates how much the website is killing Gaia (mine is worse than 80% of webpages, despite the server running on sustainable energy (Dreamhost is a green host))
  11. The Right Scoop covers the NFL playing the “black national anthem” before every game
  12. Weasel Zippers highlights how bad the new China Lebron James Space Jam movie is
  13. No Tricks Zone covers authorities failing to heed flood warnings
  14. American Elephants notes the huge number of overdose deaths during lockdown
  15. And last, but not least, American Greatness highlights many of the findings, so far, of the Arizona audit

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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States Learning Democrats “Infrastructure” Bill Seriously Restricts Ability To Build Roads

By William Teach July 18, 2021 – 8:06 am

The people pushing to pass the bill want all the states to focus on building trains and getting people to ride the bus rather than fossil fueled vehicles. You know, those buses and trains Democrats won’t use themselves

Democrats look to crush states’ highway habit

st greta carHouse Democrats are trying to use a massive climate and infrastructure bill to change how Americans get around — by breaking states’ decades-old fondness for building highways.

Legislation the House passed this month is the biggest advance yet in Democrats’ efforts to bake climate policies into transportation, addressing the largest single contributor to the United States’ greenhouse gas output. It would also represent an historic shift away from the roads-first approach to federal transportation spending that has reigned since Dwight Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway System.

But the bill is riling up opposition from two potential allies of the Democrats’ big-spending infrastructure initiatives: state transportation departments and the road-building lobby. That creates an awkward dynamic for supporters of the House bill, which faces a perilous path through the evenly divided Senate.

Critics say the five-year, $549 billion bill would represent one-size-fits-all Washington meddling at its worst.

“There are 50 different states with 50 different sets of transportation challenges. What is right for one may not be right for another,” said Dave Bauer, CEO of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, which supports many of the bill’s provisions and principles. “It’s really hard to determine that five years at a time from Washington, D.C.” (snip)

The bill, H.R. 3684 (117), would erect new bureaucratic hurdles for states seeking to spend federal money on laying asphalt, while steering them to more climate-friendly options like transit. It also would give cities more power over selecting and funding transportation projects — boosting the leverage of Democratic-led enclaves in red states such as Texas, where Houston is engaged in a high-profile fight with the state’s DOT over a highway expansion local pols don’t want.

Well, hey, state Democrats, perhaps it wasn’t the best of ideas to enable the federal government to have so much power in building highways in those state, and, more importantly funding them. In depending on Los Federales to provide the money, rather than keeping that money in the States themselves, who know better what’s going on. And maybe the cities should consider that the state should have less power and input on the use of buses, as the cities know better. Though, really, in most cities that use buses they do not really need more, and won’t expand their routes except when the cities expand. Most middle class and upper class folks aren’t going to suddenly start using them from the suburbs.

See, it’s not in simply building more highway, like we’re getting with the expansion of I-540 in the southern part of Raleigh and through Garner, creating one big sorta circle. No. It is upkeep of highways. Expanding existing roads to carry more traffic as areas grow. All that federal power isn’t sounding so great now, eh?

House Transportation Chair and bill sponsor Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said state DOTs have reflexively built highways instead of looking at other alternatives — a habit that needs to change. As a rare exception, he pointed to Virginia’s efforts to expand passenger rail service to combat perennially snarled traffic on Interstate 95.

Now, that might be a good idea, because that traffic stinks, going from just north of Richmond all the way to DC, and sometimes up to Baltimore. It turns my drive from NC to NJ from 7.5 hours to 9. The question is, will people take it?

The Democrats’ bill won’t be able to undo decades of feverish highway building overnight, but its backers say it represents a huge shift in mindset.

The bill, called the INVEST in America Act, would set limits on how states use money from one of the biggest pots of federal highway cash, the National Highway Performance Program, by requiring them to consider whether an “operational improvement or transit project” would be more cost-effective than expanding capacity for single-occupancy vehicles.

Why is it the business of the federal government to change the mindset? They’ve tried to implement a light rail scheme in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area for 20 years, and it keeps going down. The studies show almost no one will ride it. It would be beyond inconvenient for riders. Perhaps states should be making their own decisions. And start keeping more of the money sent to the federal treasury (OK, lots of it is borrowed by Los Federales). It will, though, give cities more power over the use of that money over the states themselves.

“I think the federal government has every right to say look, it’s our money, and we are now in the process of redirecting and transitioning from a 1950s approach to something that more clearly reflects not just the moment, but the future,” Aloisi said.

I do believe it’s the money of the citizens. It’s pretty much long past time to shift taxation to more of that percentage going to the cities and states than the federal government, reduce the power of the Central Government.

Read: States Learning Democrats “Infrastructure” Bill Seriously Restricts Ability To Build Roads »

Posted in Democrats, Taxation | 11 Comments | Trackback URL
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