He needs to quit compromising.
There are now at least three or more types of Republicans: The McConnell do not let anyone do anything least it spoil our power faction, the Trump crazy as hell faction, the old guard that Wall Street is everything faction and possibly some actual Republicans who are truly conservative and care about our country.
Either way we need to rethink what infrastructure is and build on it. And what is more, what is weak etc???
First there are serious infrastructure problems and we cannot afford the amount of work we need. Second we still need to find the money because what we need we sure as heck need.
Biden’s plan to incorporate including a new energy grid that incorporates renewable energy is infrastructure. He shouldn’t compromise.
Roads and bridges and similar are desperately needed and probably more so than what first meets the eye.
As per my previous post, education has desperate needs.
And there is so much more. And as a conservative you have to look at best ways to fund the infrastructure projects, some is general taxation, some can be direct taxation like the gasoline tax for roads, and some can be with public private partnerships from businesses that will benefit from the project.
First a note on the gasoline tax since we want to change to renewable energy. There will have to be a shift away from this revenue stream for planning purposes. If we want to get off fossil fuels we cannot expect this revenue without finding another source to replace it. This really should be part of the discussion going forward. I do not like toll roads for many reasons, yet one being it is like double taxation since we are paying for the gasoline tax since we use gasoline to drive on these roads. This will need to be something we get ahead of to maintain roads going forward.
For now though I am rehashing an idea I think is important for the future of our country, gives an example of public private partnership, and economic development and this approach should be examined for many of the infrastructure projects going forward.
My project is the management of water. I previously talked about building canals criss crossing the country maybe running side by side with the interstates, someone recently told me use pipelines instead.
Doing this creates many jobs including middle class and upper middle class jobs in management, engineering, project management, construction, architecture and the list goes on.
The goal is to manage areas that are prone to flooding and moving that water to the west to continue agriculture and help with adding water back into the system where there are droughts. You could pipe the water to points upstream in a river such as the Colorado River let it flow its natural course and then eventually that water helps to fill into Lake Mead so the water supply is replenished and Hoover Dam continues to generate electricity.
Industries that benefit include insurance, agriculture and of course the electric companies. Agriculture and electric companies are obvious, insurance benefits in many ways. First if you plan ahead well, you can start pumping water from rivers before the heavy rains begin so as to prevent widespread flooding and the damages it causes. This water is then pumped westward. While you could never get it perfect reducing the amount of water temporarily and the management of this helps to protect property and hopefully lives so the cost of claims is significantly lower. The water headed to drought areas reduces the wildfire risk also protecting property and lives and again reducing the claim costs. Yes, the government would have to be involved in a project this large, but by including private industry money and possibly planning, it helps to lower the tax burden on the general population. And yes there are many details to work out, yet the benefits could be tremendous such as expanding agriculture in the west even expanding more into the desert. And I have another idea around farmer subsidies if agriculture is expanded, but that is another post.
And this is a quick example, there may be other industries that benefit that could be involved to lower tax payer costs even more.
I know skeptics will say industries will transfer costs to the consumer and if not managed well, they will. Part of the planning will include cost analysis to help alleviate this scenario. You help the industries invest, create revenue bond packages in general paid for by the income of people consuming water, and implement temporary price controls. There will be say that conservatives believe in the free market and prices shouldn’t be regulated. In our interconnected world that no longer applies across the board and we have to realize certain situations and events will require some intervention to adapt to changes we can’t predict. It doesn’t have to be permanent, but the laissez faire concept of business has to be readdressed. Too much of our world relies on too many pieces to let the market define everything. It would be nice, but some markets such as water and electricity etc will need cohesive management for the greater good.
This is not abandoning business, but accepting the reality we face in the modern world. Wall Street balking at everything that doesn’t allow them to churn money to make money is not capitalism, just greed. These are the projects where Wall Street’s role is to be more of the traditional investment banker such as packaging the revenue bonds, not driving a you must meet our expectations to be considered successful. Businesses should be allowed to plan long term so the company thrives long term versus being forced to answer to short term profits all the time.
Anyway the above aside, we need to plan ahead as a country so when you talk about infrastructure it is about fixing roads and buildings, but to really make infrastructure work, you also need to think long term and plan to meet the challenges ahead. Building a new road or school won’t do anyone any good if it is washed out in a flood or there is no power to turn on the lights.
And one final point, if you think climate change is happening then these types of projects are a must.
Cheers
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