Who pays to repair collapsed bridges? Who mooches?

Pennsylvania bridge collapses creating massive traffic jams.

There are hundreds of bridges in America that need upgrades. Republicans oppose President Biden’s plan to invest in infrastructure, put push for tax cuts for their billionaire donors. Billionaires use public infrastructure like roads and bridges, but dodge taxes and stick the tab with working Americans. Isn’t it time to stop the mooching?

How safe are the bridges that you drive over? Amazon delivery trucks use public roads. How much tax did Amazon pay? How much did multi-billionaire Bezos pay in taxes? How much did billionaires donate to Republicans? Who are the Pennsylvania Republican house members that voted against investing public infrastructure? How much will the latest Republican plan to cut taxes for the wealthy cost working Americans? Follow the money and state of bridges with this Relationship Map.

Follow the moochers

MAGA Republicans block investments in public infrastructure that would benefit all Americans in order to fund more tax cuts for their billionaire donors. Billionaire tax dodgers use public infrastructure, but refuse to pay their fair share of taxes. Instead they shower Republicans with tax donations to get more tax cuts. Who suffers when a bridge collapses? We all do. Privatize profits. Socialize misery. Vote to stop this mooching.

Dangerous and decaying bridges

“The dangerous and decaying state of America’s infrastructure became a shocking reality when the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, sending vehicles crashing into the river below. 13 people were killed while another 145 were injured. In August 2018, a bridge collapse in Genoa, Italy, shocked the world with 43 people losing their lives. After that catastrophe, many countries, including the United States, started to seriously look at the state of their deteriorating infrastructure.

President Biden unveiled his plans for a $2 trillion investment in American infrastructure, describing it as “a once-in-a-generation effort”. It would involve replacing lead piping, rebuilding 20,000 miles of roads and repairing the country’s 10 most economically important bridges. Biden described the program as “unlike anything we have seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago”. He added that it would be “the largest American jobs investment since World War II”. – Statista

220,000 American bridges need repair work

The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) illustrated the scale of the challenge in overhauling and repairing U.S. infrastructure by finding that more than 220,000 American bridges need repair work. 45,000 of them were deemed structurally deficient and Americans cross them 171.5 million times daily. At the current rate, it would take more than 40 years to fix all of them and cost an estimated $41.8 billion. The good news is that the number of structurally deficient bridges has declined for the past five years but that trend has been tempered by more bridges being downgraded from good to fair condition.

Out of all U.S. states, Iowa has the most structurally deficient bridges, 4,571 or 19.1 percent of its total bridges. Pennsylvania comes second on the list with 3,353 of its bridges falling into the same category, along with 2,374 in Illinois. West Virginia has the highest share of bridges classified as structurally deficient at 21 percent while Nevada has the lowest at just 1.4 percent. – Statista

House GOP unveils new bills to cut taxes for billionaires!

“The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the three GOP bills together would add about $21 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years. But some budget experts said that figure tells only part of the story, since Republicans relied on a series of timing and accounting maneuvers to create the impression of a low price tag. The three bills extend Trump-era tax breaks targeting businesses only through 2025, even though Republicans have said they hope to make them permanent. During that period, the GOP plans actually add about $300 billion to the federal deficit, much of which they offset through the repeal of climate-focused tax credits that aren’t scheduled to take effect until 2027.

The Tax Policy Center concluded in its own recent analysis that these business provisions alone could cost the government about $500 billion over the coming decade if they are extended indefinitely, as Republicans seek.” – Washington Post

Check the condition of the bridges you drive over

TakeAway: Stop billionaire mooching. Vote for Democrats to make sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes.

Deepak
DemLabs

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