Florida now says that bids over 10% engineers estimates are non responsive. So more than $2 billion , bid and not awarded.

Cost's money to bid, a lot!

No wonder we spend so much on gasoline, sit in traffic most of our day.

We need to get rid of incompetant, layered, bureaucrats retireing in FL on our money! Then replaced by more stupid.

Why worry about bridges when we have saving Iraq?

Please vote locally, and nationally when you can.

Mike Young

Congressman, Senators and your local reps handle this type of stuff (exclusive of party) and in fact there was bridge work going on at the time.

In Mass we have tolls that were supposed to go way years ago, but have remained in place to COLLECT BILLIONS so we can SUPPOSEDLY pay for repairs.

Anyone drive in my state lately, the roads suck period.

The money is there, but gets misused by HACKS from BOTH side of the aisle.

Don't kid yourselves liberals that this is a Republican problem, BOTH of the do-nothing parties are accountable not for the bridge collapsing, but for wasting monies that could go to paying for upkeep and repairs being done.

To appease you losers, Bush is indeed and idiot, feel better?

What must be done? We all must use very small cars. Smart highways can be built easily and inexpensively elevated above or along existing highways. We use the proper car for the proper purpose and get out of those 5,000 pound SUVs that take one person to work. The US must begin to think smart as we have been very stupid. Example: Why do we have only one gas or diesel engine? Electice motors are quiet, extremely simple and more powerful that those stinking gasoline and diesel engines. OIL!!! Pledge to buy a small car and make it electric if you can and get the government to build nice small roads for only them. This will take many people off those crowded highways and reduce pollution.

It's a tragedy now, but wait a short while to process all this, find out some more, and this incident, like Katrina in NOLA, will be indicative of our disrepair here at home.

Neglect is something every person can recognize, and more and more Americans see it around us and feel it in our collective, national soul. Though some time off, 2008 WILL indeed be a change reflection. No amount of forseable circumstances nor poor, contrived, tired/fearmongering, talking point, excuse or "I don't recall" can change this irrevicable factor for the GOP.

One bridge falls and all of a sudden every road in the U.S. is about to crumble and is being held up with duct tape as far as you all are concerned. If this bridge hadn't fallen, you all would still be debating over who looks better in a dress....Hillary or Obama. Now, all of a sudden, crumbling U.S. infrastructure is a National epidemic.

I feel sorry for all of you. You are out of it mentally. Get a grip...get a grip....get a grip!

IT HAS BEEN FAILING FOR 30 YEARS.... If you point and blame one man, then you're too dumb to breed in my opinion.

Everyone is at fault, from the politicians to our government to ourselves demanding so much in return for giving so little...

Someone earlier commented on how great Germany is when it comes to their roadways.... yeah they toll them and they spend their tax money well..

In this country, we hardly do either. Oh yeah and it's a $500 dollar fine to curse of flick off a motorist in Germany. Talk about balancing the stupid budget here in our country if we could implement that law!

Neocons don't want you to know anything about that. But it's so easy to find out all about it.

Neocons on this blog are spouting off about what our gov't 'should' spend our money on. Not having a clue or at least ignoring the gross waste of money their taxes have been squandered on so far by this most inept administration with their 'philosophy of smaller gov't'. Spouting off tirades when Dems address REAL issues. Trying to tell us that reality makes not a difference at all – but that tax cuts do.

Civics 101, morons. Gov'ts are in place to provide for INFRASTRUCTURE. That's where our money should go. If you want a tax cut and you fall to your death on a collapsed bridge, remember – you can't take your tax cut with you.

VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBANTS!!!!!!

The Right side of the aisle has lost all credibility in any further argument regarding spending. Just sit down.

Could you just take 5 minutes to research what you're saying?

In 2006 the actual spending for the department of defense was 550 billion. That doesn't include spending for Veterans Affairs which was 750 million. Also not inlcuded in president Bush's budget was the cost of the Iraq war. This is why he gets to blame congress for not giving him his emergency appropriations. To date the war is estimated to have cost 456 billion by the end of September. In the news recently: Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist puts the final figure at a staggering $1 trillion to $2 trillion.

By contrast the entire 2006 budget for the Department of Health and Human Services was 67.2 billion (a 1% decrease from 2005). That includes the following: Medicare, Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, Health Centers, Marriage and Healthy Family Development, Bioterrorism, and Health Care Information Technology.

But I guess if Rush says it, it must be true. Right?

And one more thing.

You said, "And stop lying about “tax cuts for the wealthy” (in reality they pay almost all of the taxes)"

The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center has produced estimates of how the benefits of the income and estate tax reductions enacted in 2001 and 2003 will be distributed among households at different income levels in coming years, if these tax cuts are extended. More than $1 trillion in tax cuts would go to the top 1 percent of households, a group with annual incomes above $400,000 in 2007. The highest income 1 percent of households thus would receive nearly one third of the tax cuts’ total value. The bottom 60 percent of households would receive 12 percent of the tax cuts’ value, or well under half the amount that would go to the top 1 percent.

And if you don't like the Urban institute (from Businessweek):
"A recent study by the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts have disproportionately benefited the wealthiest households. The tax cuts have boosted the aftertax incomes of the top 1% of households, with average incomes in excess of $1,000,000, by 10% - compared with a 2.3% increase for middle-income families with average incomes of $57,000 and a 1.6% increase for the bottom 20% of families, with average incomes of less than $17,000. The tax cuts for millionaires alone have reduced government revenues by $90 billion a year, more than the lost revenues from tax cuts for the 80% of families making less than $100,000. As an intended consequence of the Bush tax cuts, the share of federal taxes paid by the bottom 80% of taxpayers has increased, while the share paid by the top 1% has dropped. And that's before the elimination of the estate tax scheduled to take effect at the end of the decade, which will further reduce taxes on the wealthiest households."

It's not just about who pays what, but as the ancient Romans used to say, "quisnam beneficium" – who benefits. I don't know if you're one of the wealthiest 1%, but it always amazes me how people currently get screwed by unfair tax policies that benefit only the wealthiest in America cry for them. Your naivete is mind boggling.

If we would all just chill more we could also stop worrying about global warming, too.

Now what makes a person so eager to post such an ridiculous comment so quickly? I think I know. Fear. The same thing keeping "rightytighty" so puckered and ready to punch those keys.

How do we combat this fear? Do we need to combat this fear? Can we move forward without combat?

In case you never understood what FDR meant, he meant: "watch out for fools like Colin, RightyTighty and the rest".

Quit making this a partisan issue. Its not, and the infastructure does need improvement, and thus far, warnings have gone unheeded. It makes me sick to see people using this to call democrats whiners, or to blame welfare. Personally, I'd prefer the money to go to education, so I don't have to hear all of the mouth breathers regurgitating party lines and Limbaughesque trash.

Depending on the month, we here in Southeast MI have the highest unemployment rate, highest foreclosure rate and depending on the study Detroit has one of the lowest graduation rates in the country.

Come drive on our expressways and look under our overpasses. The majority are lined with plywood to keep some of that crumbling infrastructure from falling onto motorists and the roads.

It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots (Reagan's deregulation of the airline industry, trickle down economics, the wholesale give away and exodus of the country's manufacturing base in exchange for slave labor in so-called free trade agreement countries, HMO's, tax cuts for the rich, No Child Left Behind, the fiasco of the Iraq War, etc.) left behind by a cabal of the power elite to realize the U.S. is well on its way to being a bankrupt shell of its former self unable to help the common citizen. When you take complete economic ecosystems out of the melting pot you end up with vast areas of near-wasteland like much of Southeast MI. It's like cancer that spreads and spreads unless it's addressed. Sometimes, like cancer, nothing can be done.

You still adhere to the myth that this is a land of opportunity and that any governmental regulation is tantamount to Marxism.

What do any of us worker bees have in common with immoral, lying, cheating trust funders who perpetuate their system of controlling the nation's wealth?

I don't understand how you idolize these people who consider you cattle, lemmings and canon fodder. When are you going to wake up and realize that striving to be one of them, supporting their policies and alienating yourselves from the majority middle of the road citizens of this country only furthers the divide and decline of this country?

The Cato Institute, a bastion of conservative think, recently had to admit that cutting taxes in fact does not cut Federal spending. In fact for every 1.5% tax cut, spending goes up by an equal amount.

How can this be? Because conservatives like you get used to the Federal government providing you with certain services. Police, fire, federal bail out money in times of floods, earthquakes, etc.
When the Federal government raises taxes by 1.5%, Federal spending actually goes down by the same amount.
How can this be?

It is like shopping at Christmas with plastic instead of cash. When you pay on credit you can think about the actual cost later and the oversight is next to nill. When you pay in cash, you know what the "true" cost is and you do expect a full and fair accounting.

When the Federal govt. cuts taxes, it means less money for the states. Money that could be used to make improvements and repairs to infrastructure in those states. However, when the Federal monies dry up, and being that states cannot be in deficit, state sales taxes, property taxes, licensing fees, etc...all get raised to pay for the Federal shortfall.

I would rather know that lets say $8billion dollars in unaccounted for funds to aid in Iraqi reconstruction, actually actually had gone to something tangible and useful. Something that would keep us safe, like port security, improvements to our nations' electrical grid system, security at nuclear and chemical sites, etc... Instead you have a state like Indiana (with its Republican governor) who actually wanted to sell his states toll roads to a French/Spanish conglomerate so his state can make alittle money. Gee, I thought Bill O'Reilly said that France was bad!

Wake up and be an adult. Government works. Republicans say that government does not work and then, like a self-fufilling prophecy, go out of their way to make sure it doesn't work. Oh, it can work. Just not with Republican's at the helm.

You shared, "The needs of improving our entire infrastructure (bridges, highways, dams, water systems, etc.)up to standard is around $1.6 trillion…the amount we have spent so far on the Iraq war—$1.6 trillion….hmmmmmm. Wonder sometimes where our values lie"

You DO know the vast majority of our expenses in Iraq have been the salaries of our soldiers, right? So equating the "cost" of Iraq to some other project is apples and oranges. Or were you suggesting we eliminate our intire military?

Just trying to get what you're saying here.

You wrote, "$250,000.00 per Minute of our Tax Dollars are happily spent attacking a Country that never attacked us or threatened to.

Ask for a little bit of our Tax Dollars to be used at home for the good of the American Infrastructure and you’re an alarmist liberal.

Where has Common Sense & Logic gone?

-------------

Gee, Becca – do you pay the same gas tax (state and fed) I do here in Sacramento?? Funny I didnt realize all those tax dollars went into the Iraq War chest.

And did you pay income tax like me?? For some odd reason I thought those dollars were used for domestic programs as well as the military budget.

How naive of me! Thank you for not being an alarmist and using common sense by asking for a "little bit" of our tax dollars to be used at home as opposed to paying our military.