{"id":2497,"date":"2012-09-04T07:19:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T11:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2012-09-04T07:19:28","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T11:19:28","slug":"how-romneys-economic-plan-would-gut-infrastructure-investments-like-levees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/2012\/09\/how-romneys-economic-plan-would-gut-infrastructure-investments-like-levees\/","title":{"rendered":"How Romney&#8217;s Economic Plan Would Gut Infrastructure Investments (Like Levees)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 22.5px; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;\">As Romney tours the storm damage, it\u2019s worth noting<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/today\/index.ssf\/2012\/08\/isaac_forces_evacuations_of_th.html\">that government-funded levees<\/a>\u00a0prevented far greater damage from occurring in New Orleans, seven years after the city was battered (and the levees failed) during Hurricane Katrina:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"margin: 10px 50px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #ffffff; quotes: none; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5em;\"><strong style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;\">Isaac\u2019s whistling winds lashed this city and the storm dumped nearly a foot of rain on its desolate streets, but the system of levee pumps, walls and gates appeared to withstand one of the stiffest challenges yet<\/strong>\u2026Isaac arrived seven years after Hurricane Katrina and passed slightly to the west of New Orleans, where the city\u2019s fortified levee system easily handled the assault.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 22.5px; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;\">Meanwhile, Romney\u2019s economic plan \u2014 which would require\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2012-08-30\/romney-s-plan-to-end-deficit-hits-poor-as-well-as-park-rangers.html\">a nearly 30 percent reduction<\/a>\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/cms\/?fa=view&amp;id=3658\">in all discretionary spending<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 would make America\u2019s already precarious infrastructure situation worse. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S.\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.infrastructurereportcard.org\/sites\/default\/files\/RC2009_full_report.pdf\">needs $2.2 trillion in investments<\/a>\u00a0to bring its infrastructure into adequate shape,\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.infrastructurereportcard.org\/sites\/default\/files\/RC2009_levees.pdf\">including $100 billion to repair levees<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE:\u00a0<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/economy\/2012\/08\/31\/786331\/levees-romney-infrastructure\/\" target=\"_blank\">How Romney&#8217;s Economic Plan Would Gut Infrastructure Investments (Like Levees) | ThinkProgress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Romney tours the storm damage, it\u2019s worth notingthat government-funded levees\u00a0prevented far greater damage from occurring in New Orleans, seven years after the city was battered (and the levees failed) during Hurricane Katrina: Isaac\u2019s whistling winds lashed this city and the storm dumped nearly a foot of rain on its desolate streets, but the system&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,22],"tags":[24,1422,26,1421,301],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}