Remember This
Posted by MEC on August 2, 2007
“My goal is to cut government in half … to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” – Grover Norquist
When we cut funding for essential government services in order to provide tax cuts for billionaires and gratify the rightwing ideologues, it isn’t the government that drowns.
30 Responses to “Remember This”
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Karla said
When I was growing up in St. Paul, I had an almost-smug sense of pride in how sensibly Minnesotans took care of things and people that needed taking care of (like how you could tell in a blizzard when you crossed a state border because of the quality of the plowing and the roads, etc.). It’s sad how that’s changed.
OxyCon said
While I do think metaphorically contrasting Norquist’s comments with the bridge collapse is a powerful message, it must be pointed out that the bridge was being repaired when it collapsed, so in reality it was not being neglected by the government the way Norquist would want it to.
MEC said
The bridge was being repaired two years after it was rated “deficient”. That suggests two years of neglect.
Phoenix Woman said
OxyCon: It was being resurfaced, not repaired; the structural parts weren’t affected at all. And if you go back to my previous post, you’ll see that a 2005 study said that it was “structurally deficient” and a candidate for replacement. Not repair, replacement.
ironranger said
When Mike Hatch was running for governor, I attended a Hatch meet & greet in Cook, MN. Also attending was Sen. Tom Bakk who made a point of relating a conversation with Gov. Pawlenty. This was also printed in the Mesabi Daily News, 10/10/06.
Bakk then went on to tell of a one-on-one conversation with Pawlenty just a few days after it was reported that the state would not provide the $11 million in road funds necessary to trigger the $49 million U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., had secured for the Highway 53 work. Oberstar had been able to acquire the federal funds in part because of a grass-roots effort by Britt area residents that emphasized the need for expansion and safety improvements on the highway because of several recent accident-related deaths.
Bakk was at a ceremony for a new University of Minnesota-Duluth business school building when he asked Pawlenty about the state funds not being made available for the Highway 53 project.
“He said to me, ‘We told Jim Oberstar not to earmark money that was not in our transportation plan. We’ll show him a lesson and send the money back to Washington.’
“We should leverage every federal dollar we can. That really calls into question Gov. Pawlenty’s leadership.” Bakk said.
I think that pretty much characterizes the Tim Pawlenty that many of us know and don’t love.
MEC said
“We told Jim Oberstar not to earmark money that was not in our transportation plan. We’ll show him a lesson and send the money back to Washington.”
Isn’t that just like a Republican. The point of the exercise is wielding power, not getting necessary things done.
ironranger said
Power that is even more destructive in the hands of petty children.
SouthernDragon said
Bush has no problem borrowing the trillion dollars his disaster will cost, to be paid for by the children, and their children, whose health care he won’t fund and who will inherit an infrastructure unfit for human habitation. What federal money was allocated for Katrina never got any further than the third tier of Bush cronies. American tax dollars going to help Americans? Preposterous. Those same dollars going for subsidies to the megagrowers of genetically modified corn? Appropriate use of federal tax revenues.
And Grover Norquist is still raking in the almighty dollars for his schemes.
These people would stand their mothers up against the wall for a buck.
Charles said
50 cents, in a pinch.
Bob P said
Nothing like people blowing their mouth off to blame the federal government for something neglected by state and local government. The real question is what has the state been doing with the federal road funds they do get? They have known about this for two years now. Even if the Federal government gives them money, the local government decides how to use it. Just like the levy in New Orleans. Why was this bridge work not in the state transportation plan?
SouthernDragon said
Bob P
You might want to check just how much federal highway money didn’t get to the states because of massive tax cuts. Local governments could in no way raise enough money to fund these projects. That’s why the percentage local government has to come up with is so low. It’s hard to make a transportation plan with little or no money coming in.
You might also want to read the original post.
And Grover wants to recruit you for his anti-government scheme.
Bob P said
Southern Dragon
You might want to look at the facts from the Min/DOT website:
About SAFETEA-LU— Safe Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users
On Aug. 10, 2005, the federal surface transportation act known as SAFETEA-LU was signed into law.
SAFETEA-LU:
Authorizes $286 billion in spending for the six-year period 2004-09 for numerous surface transportation programs, such as highways, transit, freight, safety and research.
Amounts to a significant increase in funding for Minnesota over TEA-21—the previous six-year transportation act which expired on Sept. 30, 2003.
Enables state, metropolitan and local agencies to deliver numerous transportation projects during the next four years.
~bob~
Phoenix Woman said
Bob P:
Tell us how far that $286 billion, divided 300 ways (fifty states times six years), will go. And it doesn’t help that much of the 2005 bill was diverted into earmarks that benefitted few people aside from certain key friends of key Republican Congresscritters.
Bob P said
Southern Dragon
I don’t get much from slanted finger pointing, I know it’s hard for many folks to take but, please just look at the facts.
This is the real budget that the state had to work with…
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/safetea-lu/files/transitfunding/state-oct22.pdf
~bob~
Phoenix Woman said
Nice ignoring my comment and links, Bob. ;-)
Meanwhile, check this out — and let’s not forget, MnDOT’s head is Carol Molnau, Tim Pawlenty’s right-hand woman.
http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1339411.html
Money grafs:
Structural deficiencies in the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed Wednesday were so serious that the Minnesota Department of Transportation last winter considered bolting steel plates to its supports to prevent cracking in fatigued metal, according to documents and interviews with agency officials.
The department went so far as to ask contractors for advice on the best way to approach such a task, which could have been opened for bids later this year.
MnDOT considered the steel plating at the recommendation of consulting engineers who told the agency that there were two ways to keep the bridge safe: Make repairs throughout the 40-year-old steel arched bridge or inspect it closely enough to find flaws that might become cracks and then bolt the steel plating only on those sections.
…
A construction industry official who met with MnDOT about shortcomings on the I-35W bridge told the Star Tribune that there have been ongoing concerns among some MnDOT employees about the safety of this and other similar bridges.
“There were people over there that were deathly afraid that this kind of tragedy was going to be visited on us,” the industry official said. “There were people in the department that were screaming to have these replaced.”MnDOT has been trying to move these ‘fracture critical’ bridges up in their [budget] sequencing so something like this wouldn’t happen,” the source said.
…
Some close observers of MnDOT continued to speculate Thursday that the decision to monitor instead of fix deficiencies in the bridge was driven by financial concerns. Dave Semerad, CEO of the Minnesota chapter of the Associated General Contractors, said everything MnDOT does is based on cost-benefit analysis.
“Let’s face it. They don’t have any money,” Semerad said. “At the end of the day, that’s the issue. This is indicative of a long-term pattern.”
Bob P said
Dear Phoenix Woman
I didn’t ignore your comment, as a matter of fact I confused your post with SD’s post. Therefore the slanted finger pointing comment was indeed directed towards you.
Sorry Southern Dragon!
The Startribune link doesn’t tell us anything more than total miss-management on the state an local level either. The money is still thrown around on that level not the federal level. Where did well over $80 million designated directly to that area go in less than two years? And please…the bridge design is very common and so is the damage, fixing it is not rocket science. I still blame local political mis-management. I don’t care who YOU voted for, these LOCAL people had a job to do and didn’t do it. Since the evidence is so glaring, if Mn/DOT would have closed the bridge, it have would force the hand of any local, state, or federal political road block.
~bob~
Phoenix Woman said
The problem is that because of the years of neglect inspired by the no-new-taxes (especially for rich people) GOP, 25% of our roads are long overdue for replacement — which will cost several billions. And as Dave Semerad and others said in today’s Strib article, MNDoT simply doesn’t have that kind of money.
SouthernDragon said
Bob P and PW
Sorry for the lateness but my boss doesn’t take kindly to me not showing up for work.
I live in FL so I’m not familiar with local politics in MN but I do know that the interstate and the bridge connecting the roadway over the Mississippi fall under the federal interstate system and is ultimately the fed’s responsibility. The feds are also responsible for the Mississippi because it’s a navigable river. The fed govt has neglected the interstate system since the 1970′s, doling out pennies instead of dollars for new construction and maintenance. The big push now is to corporatize the interstate system, the selling point being that private money will do a better job of maintaining the roads. When Eisenhower signed the interstate system law in 1956 he knew that the interstate system was vital to the defense of the country. Its importance has not changed in the last 51 years. To turn any part of that system over to private money will be something any state that does it will painfully regret.
Legislation is one thing. Actually seeing the dollars is another. Combine that with state politicians diverting money away from such projects due to massive tax cuts benefiting primarily the wealthy and you have a recipe for disaster.
PW, I love your posts on FDL.
Phoenix Woman said
“Legislation is one thing. Seeing the dollars is another.”
I’ve lost track of all the funding and aid promises Bush has broken.
MEC said
“I’ve lost track of all the funding and aid promises Bush has broken.”
Starting with recovery funding for New York after the September 11 attacks, and continuing through money for the Gulf Coast, especially New Orleans, after Hurrican Katrina.
It’s a truism that whenever Bush makes a public appearance to express support for an organization or program, the federal funding for that worthy cause will be cut.
SouthernDragon said
PW
At #18 I said I loved your posts at FDL. That is not to say I don’t love your posts here. After I re-read it I thought I should make myself a little more clear. I lurk here a lot but I lurk at a lot of blogs and if I commented on all of them, which I would love doing, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else. Hooked me with this one, though. Just the mention of Norquist pushes my buttons.
Dean’s speech at YK is killer! I have to be an echo chamber for once and say he gets it.
Peace
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Bob P said
PW & her Florida Cheer leader
Your legistation line is so full of holes, it sinks faster than the 35W bridge did, as up coming law suits will be very quick to reveal. Mn/DOT is currently under the largest federal budget handout of all the states in the country. And this is for your cheer leader in Florida;
While Interstate Highways usually receive substantial federal funding and comply with federal standards, they are owned, built, and operated by the states in which they are located. The only exception is the federally-owned Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495). LOOK IT UP!!!!
You are not interested in the facts because they don’t fit your obvious finger pointing at Bush agenda but, as I said before please look at the facts. You want to talk about ear marks, take a look at Mn/DOTs own ear marked budget (money they had) made up in Dec 2005 this money got spent.
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/safetea-lu/files/projectlistnov22.pdf
Now please feel free to show me AND millions of other people where the 35W bridge structural repairs fit into the state and local priorities. One would think, the brigde would rate a priority 1 or 2 but, it didn’t even make the list for ’06. I see a lot of nice to have items on that budget (trails, bike trails, environmetal studies, reconstructs etc.) but, none as life threating as the I-35W bridge defects they have known about for well over ten years. How can trails of any kind rate a higher priority than a heavily traveled bridge that crosses the largest river in this country?
Oh and let’s not forget your other cheer leader MEC, again please show me some facts. Have any of you seen any real budget figures for those projects? I have! Just once can’t you get off the hate filled slanted websites and blogs long enough to investigate for yourself? As for the 911 rebuild plan, the City of NY has a very big say in that, please feel free to jerk on that chain first. I think you will find it has very little to do with Federal and a lot to do with city, state and lets not forget PRIVITE funding. You may have somewhat of a point on Katrina since Florida is by far still the biggest HOG of Federal hurricane relief money. But here again state and local governments control most of the money handed to them. Don’t you remember Mayor Nagin and his school buses, while he was safe in his high rise motel room?
~bob~
Phoenix Woman said
Bob: Nice straw-man construction and cherry-picking. Too bad it has only a tangential relationship to the topic.
If Carol Molnau’s MnDOT is so flush with cash, then why did Pawlenty so quickly agree to passing the very gas-tax plan (and possibly even the DFL’s property-tax relief and upper-income bracket plan) he’d vetoed in May? Of course, he is now playing a game of “good cop, bad cop”, with him as the “good cop” and his fellow anti-taxers and buddies Molnau and House GOP leader Marty Seifert playing the “bad cops”: He’ll officialy back the taxes, but Seifert looks to be telegraphing his plan to block them.
Phoenix Woman said
Meanwhile, check out more GOP two-stepping on the gas tax, wherein they act in Stalinist “The Commissar Vanishes” fashion to rewrite history: http://mnpublius.com/2007/08/mn-gop-pfeilsticker-draz-and-the-gas-tax/
MEC said
“Don’t you remember Mayor Nagin and his school buses”
Yes, we do remember the fewer than 700 school buses, which would have been completely inadequate for evacuation even if there’d been people available to drive them, which there weren’t. School buses aren’t much use without a driver, and you can’t just pick people at random to drive a vehicle as large and clumsy as a bus.
Charles said
Oh, come on, MEC.
You know that the states are only responsible for protecting the public safety when the governor is a Democrat and the President is a Republican. It’s only a federal responsibility when the President is a Democrat and the governor is a Republican.
In this case, both Pawlenty and Bush are obviously innocent because they are both Republicans.
Can’t you set aside your liberal blinders long enough to admit that?
Bob P said
I’m probably off topic again,
You folks on the left sure prove that politics is thicker than blood. If you can’t blame a republican then it just didn’t happen. If your dreams for a United Socialist Republic of America ever comes to pass, wake me so I can morn our fore-fathers. For I know they will be rolling in the grave. I am such a fool to not think as you; that government shoud be MOM, you know doing for me whatever I don’t WANT to do or am not responsible enough to do for myself.
Collapse of a major bridge in a very large city in the most powerfull country on the planet should be discrace enough to us all. So go ahead and defend all your favorite polliticians and point the finger at Bush or Republicans in general. When the dust settles, and the bridge is rebuilt, it is still very obvious that several died because someone else didn’t do their job.
~bob~
Charles said
Yeah, guys! Only Bob can see the truth here! The fact that the Feds provide 80% of the money for highways and the fact that the Governor’s appointee decides what gets repaired and how is irrelevant.
What matters here is that Michael Moore is fat!
Bob P said
Charles
Wow nice shot and again with no facts, here is the Governor standing in the way of progress back in May of this year:
May 2007
The Governor also signed the $3.8 billion Transportation Omnibus Finance bill that provides funding for the Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Safety, and the Metropolitan Council.
“Unfortunately, the legislature failed to pass my transportation funding proposal that would have accelerated work on important projects across Minnesota,” Governor Pawlenty said. “It’s unfortunate that some legislators and advocates again overreached and went for a massive tax increase instead of moving Minnesota forward with a reasonable road package.”
Governor Pawlenty’s 2007 transportation proposal would have infused $1.7 billion in bonding and one-time funding to advance road projects across the state. The Governor proposed and signed a transportation bill in 2003 that funded $900 million in critical, long-delayed, state highway and bridge projects authorized in the 2003 transportation bill – the largest infusion of transportation funding in Minnesota’s history.
My Source: Mininesota North Star
Where did you get your information about the Governor and the Lt Governor?
~bob~