Making America "great" again??

[bae]

I could really support repairing/replacing some of our highway bridges before they drop into rivers and ravines, as seems to be happening these days. The local one on I5 that fell into the Skagit a couple years back produced a large economic impact on this part of the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Sk...ridge_collapse

Washington State has nearly 400 bridges that are in need of attention, as well as lots of other infrastructure problems. And we're doing pretty well, compare to many other states.

http://www.infrastructurereportcard....nfrastructure/

[LDAHL]

I could really support repairing/replacing some of our highway bridges before they drop into rivers and ravines, as seems to be happening these days. The local one on I5 that fell into the Skagit a couple years back produced a large economic impact on this part of the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Sk...ridge_collapse

Washington State has nearly 400 bridges that are in need of attention, as well as lots of other infrastructure problems. And we're doing pretty well, compare to many other states.

http://www.infrastructurereportcard....nfrastructure/

Every Friday, I have lunch with my friend who happens to be our County's chief engineer. He often rails (if you'll excuse the expression) on this very topic and quotes this very source. While there may be some element of asking the barber if you need a haircut, he's convinced me that bridges are indeed a high priority. We had a fairly major bridge over the Mississippi come down a few years ago. He also has some frightening things to say about our water-related infrastructure.

[nswef]

I agree that infrastructure is a major problem. It's very expensive to repair and not at all as flashy as a new stadium or whatever else the money is needed to do. It would be wonderful to have workers able to do some of the work...Works Project, but I imagine the skill level might need to be improved.

[Rogar]

He also has some frightening things to say about our water-related infrastructure.

It brings to mind the fact that dams are part of our infrastructure too and have probably been ignored as much or more than roads and bridges.

[ToomuchStuff]

This seems like a good thread for it.

Over the holiday's I watched some UK game shows I watch on Youtube occasionally. One of the guests on one, replied to a Trump tweet, asking what day will America be great again, as they are trying to book a trip and would like to do it early.

[bae]

It brings to mind the fact that dams are part of our infrastructure too and have probably been ignored as much or more than roads and bridges.

Yup. I have our state's dam report somewhere here too. Scary stuff, especially if you live downhill from one of the ones on the list.

(*) My water association's dam got mistakenly placed on the list last year as a deathtrap, turns out it was a paperwork error on their end, but by that time regional media had already run with the story. Luckily only one fellow lives in our death zone, and we called him up and unruffled his feathers.

[nswef]

Dams are terrifying....

[Rogar]

Dams are terrifying....

I don't know enough about the electrical grid to have a valid opinion, but it is another less obvious infrastructure problem. Seems like it could be vulnerable to all sorts of meddling or other failure, attack, or collapse.

[LDAHL]

Yup. I have our state's dam report somewhere here too. Scary stuff, especially if you live downhill from one of the ones on the list.

With so much deferred maintenance on things like that, it make me wonder why the feds want to spend so much on things like "high speed" rail that wouldn't seem to me to have the same priority.

[Tenngal]

Cut military spending 50% over the next 4 years.

Increase federal spending on critical infrastructure - highways, bridges, railways, airports, ports, ...

Increase efforts in early childhood education/nutrition/healthcare.

Cease selling off our national forests, minerals, and other such things for pennies-on-the-dollar - reorganize the system to charge a fair price that sustainably manages our public lands and resources.

Implement a reasonable guest-worker and immigration policy. None of this "build-a-wall" nonsense.

Scale down the "war on drugs", get nonviolent offenders out of prison - our prison population levels are just silly.

...

great list!!! + national heath care