Monday night I was on David Calef’s great radio show Inside Politics when he shocked me with a new poll. Gallup, often thought of as a Conservative and Republican polling firm, had just come in with a new poll on rebuilding America’s infrastructure.
Huge majorities of Americans favor spending on rebuilding America’s infrastructure – roads and bridges, rail lines, interstate highways, the electricity grid, airports, water, and sewer systems.
According to Gallup 70% of independents favor spending on America’s infrastructure, 90% of Democrats and a solid majority of Republicans favor spending on America’s infrastructure.
As you’ve read here before it shouldn’t be shocking. Our electricity grid and transmission lines are archaic and lose electricity when being moved from power stations to urban populations. It is also very ill-prepared to bring online renewable energy like wind and solar. Our roads and bridges have been in disrepair for years as evidenced by the Interstate 5 bridge collapse in Washington State last month. That was an interstate highway that is very important to goods and services, and people going back and forth from Canada. We all use our water systems and sewer systems. Both need major improvements across America. Rail travel is so much cheaper and requires much less carbon fuel than auto or air travel. A first class rail system would save money for every American family who travels.
Every improvement in infrastructure makes our country and our economy more productive. Rebuilding our infrastructure increases productivity.
And, of course, rebuilding and repairing our nation’s infrastructure would put lots of our unemployed people to work. A serious commitment to the future in the form of infrastructure repair and rebuilding would go a long way to ending our economic crisis and growing our economy.
CLICK HERE to download 18 Essential Qualities That Every Organizer Must Have FOR FREE!