Of course the problem isn’t a lack of money but rather it will likely be a bad design and inadequate inspection techniques. (Although that may not be anyone’s “fault.”).

If there is fault to be had with the funding it’s that the politicians have a lousy sense of priorities.

What’s more, have we really departed so far from our federalist roots that we’re now blaming the President of the United States for not properly maintaining a bridge in Minneapolis (if that is indeed why the bridge went down)? What about local city officials? County road inspectors? State highway department people? The governor?

Laura Ingraham was talking about this this morning. She mentioned some letter in the NY Times or something about a leftist blaming Bush. Like Kerry would have been out inspecting every bridge in the country. Gore wouldn’t have because he may have looked down and saw a speck of dirt or a dead fish in the water and would have run home crying.

I was thinking along the lines of you this morning, Rob. To answer your question, we have no concept of federalism. Everyone looks at the US as just a big country with a lot of cities instead of a country made up of independendent and autonomous states.

Every person who looks to Washington to fix this problem and any others has no clue about this country’s roots. It’s the federal government’s job to do everything. Look at all the minimum wage nonsense. Why didn’t these people look to their state and local governments to set a minimum wage? They want a big federal babysitter.

We don’t need Congress to do more, we need them to do less.

wether this would have gone to repairing the bridge though is unlikely as it was oked in 2005 and 2007,

What a pathetic screed. More money would have kept this from happening but it would have built some more million dollar pee stops so blame the conservatives.

because it would have raised gas tax by .05 it was axed all together.

The government has plenty of money if they spend it properly. Giving them more money is not going to solve the problem of the government spending our money inappropriately.

It appears that the cause of this failure is poor design. If any blame is due it should go to the locals not setting the right priorities to fix it.

Hmmm, it is a bridge of an INTERSTATE HIGHWAY. I think that falls under the Federal umbrella.

Isn’t it maintained by the State? I guess to replace it it’d be more likely done with mostly federal dollars. I would imagine the locals set up some kind of priority list.

Hmmm, it is a bridge of an INTERSTATE HIGHWAY. I think that falls under the Federal umbrella.

Excuse me bucko, but when’s the last time you’ve seen a U”S Department Transportation” road crew fixing a stretch of highway or a bridge?

As The Ace points out, the feds disperse federal money to the states, but it’s the states that are responsible for maintenance. Ultimately this disaster sits in the hands of the Minnesota Department of Transportation…whether it was preventable remains to be seen.

Before anybody can cry “funding cut” you would have to point to an actionable item that would have been fixed had there been more funding. That’s why this “needs more funds” meme is so creepy. It appears to have be a breakdown in the engineering community, pure and simple. You can’t fix human error just by throwing more money at it.

Why don’t we try something different, lets quit blaming and start solving, lets quit listening to the politicians and talking heads and use our own god given talents. Lets stop being the political lemmings they want us to be and get back to building the great nation we live in.