The Obvious Thing

Matthew Yglesias points out that Americans do a poor job of maintaining and upgrading our infrastructures.  We spend about 2.4% of our gross domestic product on infrastructure, compared to 5% in European counties (which I should add are not as car-oriented as the United States is).  We're spending less than we were in the 1960s.

Whenever I drive around, I see communities that can't keep up with repairs on local roads, I read about our aging sewer infrastructure, the number of bridges that will need to be replaced.   When I went on a Illinois river, I was told about a decaying dam that had jurisdictions arguing for years over who bears the responsibility of repairing it. 

Obviously we have a lot of local projects that need work.  Obviously at the moment we have a good number of unemployed people, many of them in construction.  Obviously with the construction industry feeling the pain of a slow economy, prices are competitive.  Obviously with interest rates at near-zero at the moment, now would be a good time to start borrowing and funding some local projects that will have to be done anyway at some point in the future, probably when interest rates are higher.

So obviously the logical thing to do is cut spending.  After all, a chance to fund projects at extremely low interest rates at very competitive prices and putting people to work at a time of high unemployment is simply a fantastic opportunity that must be passed up.

If you don't agree with that, call your Senators and Representatives and ask why the best chance to do a lot of local infrastructure projects at the best price in years is being passed up.