The Roadbed

Consider the question implicitly asked by Ken Blackwell in his op-ed at The Hill. Is the reason that the U. S. infrastructure is so much worse than our wealth and power might suggest bad government?

President Trump’s plan to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure is not only needed, it opens the door for Congress to take bold steps to rollback thousands of burdensome government regulations and revamp a national permitting process now mired in bureaucracy and inefficiency.

Any effort to rebuild our country’s roads, bridges, tunnels, energy and manufacturing sectors without substantive permitting reform is like NASA announcing plans to build a space station on Mars with no astronauts, money or rockets.

Reforming a bureaucratic regulatory/permitting process is crucial for the president’s infrastructure rebuilding plan to be successful.

Roads and highways are more expensive foot for foot than any other country in the world. Americans trust their government less than the people of most other OECD countries. Americans vote in elections less than people in most other OECD countries. Maybe we’re onto something. Maybe government in America is less trustworthy than in other OECD countries.