The latest pictures of the devastating consequences of poorly maintained infrastructure come from Genoa, Italy. A bridge there collapsed on Tuesday, sending cars hurtling nearly 150 feet towards the ground below and leaving 37 dead.
The United States shouldn’t wait for something similar to happen here (again) before taking steps to address failing infrastructure.
To his credit, Trump has promised $1.5 trillion in spending to update U.S. infrastructure. But, so far, despite so many “infrastructure weeks,” he has made little headway in making that promise a reality. Instead, the president has sought to cut taxes, initiate an ongoing trade war, and have Twitter wars with his rotating cast of favorite targets.
In February, Trump reiterated his campaign promise on infrastructure, saying that “We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across our land. And we will do it with American heart, and American hands, and American grit.”
But the focus on the planned rollout of infrastructure was derailed by headlines that captured the president’s attention. That meant that his speech, which was supposed to be about fixing roads and bridges, turned instead to the news flash points of the week, like ongoing U.S. involvement in Syria, appointment of federal judges, and television. The same thing has happened on two previous occasions where White House generated headlines that also overwhelmed Trump’s attempted work on infrastructure.
As Alex Conant, a Republican strategist said then, “Clearly, the president’s team wants to talk about infrastructure but are overtaken by events. It’s hard for bridges and roads to compete with the headlines coming out of the White House.”
Given the headlines that have dominated the media since February, that analysis hasn’t changed and infrastructure has continued to sit on the back burner.
Despite the president’s stated commitment to infrastructure, Trump has made little effort to push Congress to act and Congress has done little to meet the president’s goals on developing infrastructure.
The U.S. economy depends on sound roads, bridges and other projects. If Trump is committed to moving forward and actually bolstering infrastructure, that would do much more for the economy than just talking about it or, worse, forgetting about those plans entirely. What happened in Italy should be a wake-up call at home.
