Tapsearch Com EditorThe failure of...well, government
August 8th 2007 22:21
This American Prospect piece pretty well misses the mark on the message of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Paul Waldman argues that the incident calls for a vigorous, involved government -- in particular, he says the Democrats should tie it in to the health care bill SCHIP.
In other words, the government proved incapable of keeping a bridge out of a river, and the Prospect takes that to mean the state should take care of kids' medical insurance, too!
This City Journal article hits it more on the head, even though it was written before the collapse:
[S]tate and local governments, spending ever more on such items as Medicaid, education, and bloated public-employee pensions and benefits, have given infrastructure the short end of the stick—even as traditional financing sources, such as proceeds from gas taxes, haven't kept pace with the growing need. Over the last 25 years, as the miles driven on U.S. roads have doubled, road spending has increased by less than 50 percent. Deterioration is the inevitable result.
The solution is focusing the government on infrastructure (even though bridge collapses are, in fact, incredibly rare), or privatizing, not expanding the government into everything else.
In other words, the government proved incapable of keeping a bridge out of a river, and the Prospect takes that to mean the state should take care of kids' medical insurance, too!
This City Journal article hits it more on the head, even though it was written before the collapse:
[S]tate and local governments, spending ever more on such items as Medicaid, education, and bloated public-employee pensions and benefits, have given infrastructure the short end of the stick—even as traditional financing sources, such as proceeds from gas taxes, haven't kept pace with the growing need. Over the last 25 years, as the miles driven on U.S. roads have doubled, road spending has increased by less than 50 percent. Deterioration is the inevitable result.
The solution is focusing the government on infrastructure (even though bridge collapses are, in fact, incredibly rare), or privatizing, not expanding the government into everything else.
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