The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘You Can’t Just Build a New Bridge’

Posted on | May 15, 2010 | 7 Comments

The advocates of Hope and Change experience one of those Pogo moments — “We have met the enemy, and he is us” — as Harold Meyerson explains:

There are complex reasons why we have not built 21st-century versions of [Depression-era] job programs. . . .
The real problem . . . is that some programs that aren’t supposed to be long-range are turning out that way. . . .
“To be shovel-ready is much more complicated now than it was in 1933,” says Laura Chick, the former Los Angeles city controller (and a liberal Democrat) whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed as the state’s inspector general of stimulus spending. “Environmental-impact reviews, historic-preservation safeguards, unionization of government workers — these are good things, but they’ve changed the way government can operate. . . .”
She continues, “You can’t just build a new bridge. You’ve got to do environmental-impact reports, you have to open up the decision to community input, you face potential lawsuits. I’m not saying concern for environmental impacts should go away, but it makes it harder to deal with an economic crisis.”

You don’t need a Harvard diploma to figure this out, but it seems to be a revelation to Matthew Yglesias:

I think we need some more real talk about environment-impact reports and community input . . . there’s a real need to transform these processes into something more streamlined that takes a finite and knowable amount of time.

Of course, Newt Gingrich was saying this 15 years ago, and as a result liberals denounced him as a stooge for Corporate America who wanted to rape the planet.

Category: Economics, Environmentalism, Progressivism

Comments

7 Responses to “‘You Can’t Just Build a New Bridge’”

  1. KingShamus
    May 15th, 2010 @ 2:54 pm

    You ever get the feeling Matt Yglesias couldn’t hit water if he fell out of the Titanic?

  2. KingShamus
    May 15th, 2010 @ 9:54 am

    You ever get the feeling Matt Yglesias couldn’t hit water if he fell out of the Titanic?

  3. DYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » ‘You Can’t Just Build a New Bridge’
    May 15th, 2010 @ 1:12 pm

    […] The Other McCain points and laughs as the Nanny State becomes entangled in its own briar patch. Of course, Newt Gingrich was saying this 15 years ago, and as a result liberals denounced him as a stooge for Corporate America who wanted to rape the planet. […]

  4. Noel
    May 15th, 2010 @ 10:39 pm

    It’s like immigration–you can’t do it easily with a welfare state handing out free everything to 6 billion people, multi-culturalism, race preferences, identity politics, terrorism, drugs, jet travel, WMDs, etc.

  5. Noel
    May 15th, 2010 @ 5:39 pm

    It’s like immigration–you can’t do it easily with a welfare state handing out free everything to 6 billion people, multi-culturalism, race preferences, identity politics, terrorism, drugs, jet travel, WMDs, etc.

  6. Cold Fury » Burning Money: Does it Cause or Cure Global Warming?
    May 16th, 2010 @ 1:00 pm

    […] from The Other “Why Can’t We Build the Danged Fence?” McCain: “To be shovel-ready is much more complicated now than it was in 1933,” says Laura Chick, the […]

  7. Cold Fury » “You got a Federal Greased Lightning Permit for that response, pal?”
    June 7th, 2010 @ 1:48 pm

    […] the lady said, “You can’t just build a new bridge.” Even the [Avoid] Responsibility Deficit Commission can’t do its work–out of money. […]