> 70,000 Bridges in the US Rated Deficient

Here is a wake up call for the nation.

WASHINGTON - More than 70,000 bridges across the country are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion.

That works out to at least $9.4 billion a year over 20 years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Lets see, 9.4 billion a year for 20 years....getting out my calculator....hmmmm. 9.4 billion x 20 years = $188 billion. As former Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen would have likely said "soon you're talking real money."

And it is real money. Alot of money. And no doubt the Chimp will say that we just dont have that kind of money so we the people will have to sit tight.

But we do have that kind of money. We just have it spent on the wrong priorities. Right now you and me and everyone else who pays taxes are paying $12 billion a MONTH to fund Bush's war for oil in Iraqnam. Furthermore, since September 2001, we have frittered away (according to the Congressional Budget Office) $602 billion jousting at terrorist windmills in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lets get the calculator out and see how quickly we could fix the deficient bridge issue in the United States if we used these funds for a societal purpose.

If we need $188 billion to make all of our bridges safe and we are pissing away $12 billion a month to kill American kids in Iraq, then...lets see....188 /12 = 15.6 months and we could fix all of those bridges. If we started tomorrow then by November 2008, about the time Al Gore wins the Presidency for a second time, we could have all of the bridges in the United States up to standard.

Lets also look at it from the standpoint of all the money wasted in Bush's war of terrorism.

If we have spent $602 billion jousting at terrorist windmills, and need only $188 billion to fix this problem, then in the last six years we have spent 3.2 times as much money for nothing in the Middle East that we need here to fix part of the infrastructure. In fact if we had used that $602 billion for societal needs, after spending the $188 billion on bridges we'd have $414 billion left over. I think we could fund alot of universal health care in this country for $414 billion.

Too bad we don't have the money. Its being pissed away to mollify someone's outsized ego.

Wake up, Sheeple.