David Stockman : The Myth of the Crumbling Infrastructure

David Stockman reports:

Namely, 98% of US infrastructure is either the responsibility of the private business system or state and local government.

Arguably, the only thing that Washington has any business being involved with is the interstate highway system. But the latter is generally in excellent shape along most of its current 47,000 miles of surface. In fact, it was the recipient of a huge dollop of largesse compliments of the $800 billion Obama stimulus, but most of these billions were wasted on pre-mature resurfacing of highways that didn’t need it and low priority interchanges. There were simply few “shovel ready” and necessary projects to fund.

In any event, the interstate highway system could be more than adequately maintained for $30 billion per year. That’s partly because its only a small piece of the highway pie, accounting for only 1.1% of the 4 million miles of streets, roads and highways in the entire nation. Indeed, the reason we have 89,000 units of state, county, municipal and township government in the US is precisely to take care of the 99% of road surfaces that the great Dwight D. Eisenhower said should remain a non-Federal responsibility—-even as he pioneered the Interstate highway system and trust fund.

The unheralded truth, in fact, is the current gas tax generates more than enough to fund the interstate system—–that is, before two-thirds of the incoming trust fund dollars are dissipated on mass transit, bike paths, beautification, and state and local highways which should be funded by local users or taxpayers.

Some important facts.