'For sale: U.S. infrastructure?'

we are too busy building prisons in Afghanistan, no time or money to rebuild our infrastructure..........from latimes.....

"Greece is having a fire sale of its publicly-owned transportation system, with planes, trains and roads all being sold off as the country attempts to dig out of its debt crisis. Americans should watch and learn: We could well be privatizing large segments of our own transportation system soon because of the U.S. debt crisis.

Last week, Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.,), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, introduced a bill that would slash transportation spending, limiting it to the amount brought in by federal gas tax revenues and other existing highway fees. That roughly translates into federal spending of $215 billion to $230 billion over six years for highway and transit projects — about half of what the Obama administration sought last year.

The draconian spending proposal, dubbed "the Republican road to ruin" by critics, comes at a time when groups such as the American Society of Civil Engineers are saying that the U.S. needs to invest an additional $1 trillion beyond current levels over the next decade just to maintain and repair existing infrastructure.

We are facing a road infrastructure crisis, and it is of our own making. The federal gas tax has been unchanged, at 18 cents, since 1993, even as vehicles have gotten more fuel efficient. Adjusted for inflation, it amounts to a measly 12 cents today. But Americans, according to surveys, don't want to raise the tax"........................READ MORE