The “Subway Scam” ads are the latest baloney from the Center for Union Facts, a corporate-backed nonprofit devoted to attacking unions. According to recent tax filings, its funders include hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, a major backer of the Trump presidential campaign and Breitbart News.
The companies’ management of the toll road drew criticism over everything from emergency management to toll increases. In September 2008, for instance, the state ordered a suspension of tolls so residents could evacuate a flood zone, and, as a result, the state had to pay the consortium nearly $450,000 in foregone revenue.
“This is a real tragedy, and it’s one that’s backed up by sound statistics and sound science that lays out how important of a calamity it is."
This event, then, tied, in a sinister but clear way, Trump’s infrastructure plan with the racist, anti-Semitic, and neo-fascist members of Trump’s base movement .
Public-private partnerships may indeed provide the dollars that fearful politicians are unable to pry from the pockets of their tax-averse constituents. But P3s, as they are known in the infrastructure sector, are more complex than they appear. The idea that P3s allow infrastructure to be built for free is economic snake oil, P3s do not end up saving taxpayers money, especially when policymakers obscure the true costs and the risks.
The crisis at Oroville Dam should be a wake-up call to take these warnings seriously, though it’s hardly the first.
The problem with Flint, and the problem with many water delivery systems throughout the United States, is that lead pipes are time bombs.
Promises that a free lunch can be had by relying heavily on private investors for infrastructure should be viewed skeptically. Tax credits dangled to entice private financiers and developers to provide infrastructure provide no compelling efficiency gains and mostly just open up possibilities for corruption and crony capitalism.
Four out of every five - or more - have said the government makes them feel either angry or frustrated. These frustrated Americans may not fully realize it, but there's a strong case for more government - not less - as the most promising way to improve the nation's standard of living. The American government pretty much stopped growing when the civil rights movement forced whites to share public space with African Americans, then Latinos, Asians and Native Americans.
Spread the word