Some Questions for our Fearless Leaders Precipitated by the Precipitation of the 35W Bridge

More interesting than the news of the bridge collapse itself is the immediate attacks going on in the blogosphere by liberals and conservatives blaming each other for blaming each other.

Here’s how it’s going so far, in case you have other things on your minds: liberals suggest that we should have raised taxes by now in order to pay for the well documented need to improve the country’s infrastructure of roads and bridges; conservatives think it’s too bad the bridge didn’t fall on the liberals for suggesting that “no new taxes” is anything short of unimpeachable dogma.

Still, questions should be asked, in a non-partisan fashion. Here’s a few I’m wondering about today.

Timmy P has ordered all bridges in the state to be inspected. What’s the point if he won’t go along with a five cent gas tax that would pay to fix them? Could we afford a one cent gas tax that would be enough to pay for signs that we could post at the entrance to ones like the 35W bridge (which got a 50 percent passing grade when inspected two years ago) that say, “There’s a good chance that this bridge could fall down before we get around to fixing it. Cross at your own risk.”?

What should we be willing to pay taxes for? Stadiums? (Yes) Keeping city libraries open? (No) Ethanol subsidies for agribusiness? (Yes) Roads on which to drive our subsidized gas guzzlers? (No) War in Iraq? (Yes) Health care for veterans? (No)