Roads and Highways General Development Thread

[KCasiglio]

Generally these allocation bills require the states to have defined projects for the funds to support.

It takes time for the states to spin up the projects for the funds requests (the bills also include lots of rules about the nature/features of the projects). Feds cannot just send funds out into the ether.

The article says it is the Commonwealth that has been slow in distributing the funds, not the Feds.

I understand why it happens, and I understand this leg of it is on the state. Perhaps it would have been better worded as "the single greatest failure of Democrats over the past four years." - the process for getting the funds out is onerous and far too cautious. Fear of funding even one single non-optimal project has led to delays, confusion, and ironically made everything more expensive because of that time cost.

If we're going to unpack this it's better suited to another thread, but what it boils down to is everyone knows we have a massive infrastructure backlog in this country. We have no shortage of projects. Several years going by in between funding being appropriated and projects breaking ground is a policy failure and a political disaster, the lessons of which should have been learned after the Obamacare rollout.

 

[Equilibria]

I understand why it happens, and I understand this leg of it is on the state. Perhaps it would have been better worded as "the single greatest failure of Democrats over the past four years." - the process for getting the funds out is onerous and far too cautious. Fear of funding even one single non-optimal project has led to delays, confusion, and ironically made everything more expensive because of that time cost.

If we're going to unpack this it's better suited to another thread, but what it boils down to is everyone knows we have a massive infrastructure backlog in this country. We have no shortage of projects. Several years going by in between funding being appropriated and projects breaking ground is a policy failure and a political disaster, the lessons of which should have been learned after the Obamacare rollout.

That's only true in a world where each party's agenda is defined solely by brainlessly erasing the priorities of the other (of course it's 95% the GOP that does this, partially because they don't actually spend money on anything but tax cuts for the Democrats to undo).

Not saying the Democrats are perfect or don't make mistakes, but it's victim blaming to put the responsibility for Trump and the GOPs actions on them, particularly when the MO of any malign disruptor will be to exploit the deliberate decision-making of the establishment. Thoughtless destruction will always be faster than thoughtful construction.

 

[JeffDowntown]

I understand why it happens, and I understand this leg of it is on the state. Perhaps it would have been better worded as "the single greatest failure of Democrats over the past four years." - the process for getting the funds out is onerous and far too cautious. Fear of funding even one single non-optimal project has led to delays, confusion, and ironically made everything more expensive because of that time cost.

If we're going to unpack this it's better suited to another thread, but what it boils down to is everyone knows we have a massive infrastructure backlog in this country. We have no shortage of projects. Several years going by in between funding being appropriated and projects breaking ground is a policy failure and a political disaster, the lessons of which should have been learned after the Obamacare rollout.

We have a shortage of projects that actually qualify for the funding. To pass these funding measures, a lot of complex qualifiers were attached to the funding. Many project that logically should qualify don't without retooling. Go look at the legislation -- it is full of constraints that make it much harder to quickly fund project. These were the riders needed to get the bills passed. That is how legislation works.

 

[KCasiglio]

That's only true in a world where each party's agenda is defined solely by brainlessly erasing the priorities of the other (of course it's 95% the GOP that does this, partially because they don't actually spend money on anything but tax cuts for the Democrats to undo).

Not saying the Democrats are perfect or don't make mistakes, but it's victim blaming to put the responsibility for Trump and the GOPs actions on them, particularly when the MO of any malign disruptor will be to exploit the deliberate decision-making of the establishment. Thoughtless destruction will always be faster than thoughtful construction.

I don't disagree with any of that, and I don't want to come across as saying that the failure is now the GOP is going to sabotage the remaining elements as much as they are able. That is a separate and deeper problem that I believe we in Massachusetts with our skeleton of a GOP are unable to influence.

We have a shortage of projects that actually qualify for the funding. To pass these funding measures, a lot of complex qualifiers were attached to the funding. Many project that logically should qualify don't without retooling. Go look at the legislation -- it is full of constraints that make it much harder to quickly fund project. These were the riders needed to get the bills passed. That is how legislation works.

Yes, 100%. That's the problem I'm trying to articulate here.