Svante Myrick, the Mayor of Ithaca, New York, made an appearance on Meet the Press. When asked what the biggest problem he was facing was, he replied, "Potholes." I have no doubt that the mayor was being literal at the time. He brought it up several times along with the problem of funding the repairs, but Chuck Todd wanted to talk Obamacare, and while Mayor Myrick said positive things about the law, he came back to potholes and was quickly ignored. It occurred to me that Obamacare is all about potholes.
Mayor Myrick faces a real problem with potholes in Ithaca. Potholes slowdown traffic. They can damage vehicles. They need fixing. This is when government becomes a tangible thing. The healthcare system in America was broken. In other words, it had potholes doing real damage to the economy. Obamacare is an attempt to fix it. Demographically speaking, the most zealous opponents of Obamacare are on Medicare. They never see the potholes, so they don't care.
More potholes below the fold- how's that for an enticement?
A lot of people on the Wrong applauded the government shutdown last year, because they don't see the government as doing anything. It is the same with the sequester. When the sequester cuts went into effect, I was sitting at an airport bar waiting for my flight which was delayed due to (potholes) staffing cuts in air traffic control. Congress went ballistic. The allowed the FAA flexibility in their cuts so they could hire back the laid off controllers. This flexibility will lead to cuts in the repair budget leading to, you guessed it, potholes (literal ones).
When people on the Wrong hear about potholes, they say things like "We can't afford to fix them" or "Let the free market take care of it." When they drive over one of these potholes and crack their rear axle, suddenly it's a problem. The voters need to be shown the potholes that they are not driving over. They need to understand that we need to fully fund repairs.
Potholes mean things like the leaking gas line that blew up a building on Park Avenue in New York City the other day, or the broken oil-pipeline that despoiled Mayflower, Arkansas last year. We fix them all and we fund them all, because if we don't, the one we miss may be the one you care about. Remember, when your neighbor doesn't take care of his septic tank, your property ends up smelling.
The economy is still sluggish. Businesses are not investing, or hiring, due to continued lack of demand. High unemployment is a contributing factor (pothole) to the lack of demand. Extending the benefits would fill some of these potholes. Raising the minimum wage would fill yet more.