Republicans Love China. America Not So Much
On Tuesday, the residents of New Jersey saw the future - in China. On the same day that Governor Chris Christie killed funding for the badly needed second Hudson River rail tunnel, Beijing rolled out its fastest bullet train yet. As it turns out, Christie's budget ax is just the latest symptom of a growing epidemic. Across the country, the United States is walking away from its crumbling infrastructure even as America's competitors commit the resources to win in the 21st century global economy.
To be sure, China is making those investments. America's largest credit not only dominates the U.S. in launching cleaner coal-fired power plants, but by January leapfrogged the West to become the world's largest producer of wind turbines and solar panels. Just last week, an Australian study found that the China, the globe's biggest polluter, is now the clear leader in clean energy efforts.
And the Chinese make really fast trains, too. As the Wall Street Journal announced today:
Yesterday marked the launch of the latest link in China's high-speed rail network: A service between Shanghai and Hangzhou with sustained speeds of more than 245 miles per hour. The slick new train, which set a speed record during a trial run last month, covers the 200 kilometers between the two southern cities in 45 minutes -- twice as fast as the older rail service.
Meanwhile in the Garden State, Republican poster child Chris Christie guaranteed that by standing still, Americans will fall further behind.
Two weeks after first declaring he would end New Jersey's $2.7 billion contribution to what Paul Krugman deemed "America's most important current public works project," Governor Christie announced the final nail in the coffin of the long-planned and much-needed second rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Despite appeals from Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, Christie pulled the plug on a new link to Manhattan over 20 years in the making. As AP reported:
Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party for his fearless budget-slashing, has argued that his cash-strapped state can't afford to pay for any overruns on the $9 billion-plus rail tunnel under the Hudson River. The state is on the hook for $2.7 billion plus overruns.
"In the end, my decision does not change," Christie said. "I cannot place upon the citizens of New Jersey an open-ended letter of credit, and that's what this project represents."
The federal government and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are each contributing $3 billion.
By refusing to complete an effort that would double the capacity now provided by a century-old tunnel into New York, Christie isn't merely turning his back on his state's 185,000 daily rail commuters. Even as the economy struggles to recover from the deepest recession in three generations, he's also walking away from badly needed jobs:
Officials estimated it would provide 6,000 construction jobs immediately and as many as 40,000 jobs after its completion in 2018.
As Krugman explained earlier this month, "Canceling the tunnel was also a blow to national hopes of recovery, part of a pattern of penny-pinching that has played a large role in our continuing economic stagnation." The combination of the economic downturn and Republican anti-government orthodoxy is toxic for the nation's dilapidated infrastructure:
New Jersey's governor wants to kill a $9 billion-plus train tunnel to New York City because of runaway costs. Six thousand miles away, Hawaii's outgoing governor is having second thoughts about a proposed $5.5 billion rail line in Honolulu.
In many of the 48 states in between, infrastructure projects are languishing on the drawing board, awaiting the right mix of creative financing, political arm-twisting and timing to move forward. And a struggling economy and a surge of political candidates opposed to big spending could make it a long wait.
For its part, the AP lamented:
Has the nation that built the Hoover Dam, brought electricity to the rural South and engineered the interstate highway system lost its appetite for big public works projects? At a time when other countries are pouring money into steel and concrete, is the U.S. unwilling to think long-term?
Undoubtedly, the answer is yes. In the UK, a $45 billion high-speed rail link between London and the West Midlands is in the works. By 2020, Japan will complete a $70 billion freeway between Osaka and Tokyo. And while Australia is pouring $38 billion into relieving traffic congestion in Melbourne, even Algeria is committing over $11 billion to create an east-west highway.
Back in Trenton, Assembly Transportation committee chairman John Wisniewski called Christie's decision a "monumental failure of leadership."
Christie is said to be a rising star of the Republican Party. A party increasingly pro growth for China and every other country, but ready to slash funds for any project that will take America's infrastructure into the 21st Century. Ironic that from 1982 to 1992 and again from 2000 to 2008 Republicans thought big government and running up big debts was fine as long as they were the ones handing out the checks. In both instances they left America in sad shape and Democratic administrations had to clean up the mess. Now that its time to invest in America, Republicans want to cut and run.
Like clockwork: Conservatives return to baseless voter fraud allegations
Continuing a pattern in which media conservatives stoke fears about election fraud by Democrats, Bill O'Reilly baselessly raised the specter of voter fraud in Washington state and Illinois in the midterm elections. In fact, voter fraud occurs infrequently, and many of the past claims by the conservative media that election fraud took place have been false.
....ustice Department report shows very few prosecutions for illegally casting ballots. According to a report by the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, from October 2002 through September 2005, the Justice Department charged 95 people with "election fraud" and convicted 55. Among those, however, just 17 individuals were convicted for casting fraudulent ballots; cases against three other individuals were pending at the time of the report. In addition, the Justice Department convicted one election official of submitting fraudulent ballots and convicted five individuals of registration fraud, with cases against 12 individuals pending at the time of the report. Thirty-two individuals were convicted of other "election fraud" issues, including Republicans convicted of offenses arising from "a scheme to block the phone lines used by two Manchester [New Hampshire] organizations to arrange drives to the polls during the 2002 general election" -- in other words, these convictions were connected to voter suppression efforts, not voter fraud. Several other people listed in the report were convicted of vote-buying.
NYU's Brennan Center: Allegations of voter fraud "simply do not pan out" and distract from "real [election] problems that need real solutions." From a 2007 report by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice:
Perhaps because these stories are dramatic, voter fraud makes a popular scapegoat. In the aftermath of a close election, losing candidates are often quick to blame voter fraud for the results. Legislators cite voter fraud as justification for various new restrictions on the exercise of the franchise. And pundits trot out the same few anecdotes time and again as proof that a wave of fraud is imminent.
Allegations of widespread voter fraud, however, often prove greatly exaggerated. It is easy to grab headlines with a lurid claim ("Tens of thousands may be voting illegally!"); the follow-up -- when any exists -- is not usually deemed newsworthy. Yet on closer examination, many of the claims of voter fraud amount to a great deal of smoke without much fire. The allegations simply do not pan out.
These inflated claims are not harmless. Crying "wolf" when the allegations are unsubstantiated distracts attention from real problems that need real solutions.
