As America’s Infrastructure Crumbles, GOP Presidential Candidates Refuse To Offer Solutions #p2 #tcot @gop @andrewbreitbart

Republican presidential candidates have attempted to make their 2012 effort to unseat President Obama about the economy, but time and time again, they have proven unwilling to address the major crises threatening the future of America's economic growth. At multiple debates, the candidates offered little in the way of how they would address the fiscal crisis engulfing Europe and failed to understand the driving factors behind it. They offered no solutions to the American housing crisis, even as millions of homeowners face foreclosure and prices continue to fall. In sum, their policies would warrant a failing grades in an Econ 101 class.

Now, with evidence piling up that America's infrastructure is failing on multiple fronts, the candidates are again offering no long-term plans for the nation's transportation or infrastructure programs, Politico reports:

Though the words "crumbling infrastructure" have become almost cliché in the American lexicon, candidates' websites are barren of transportation plans, save for expansion of domestic energy production. Only Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) delves into infrastructure policy at all in his Web platform, proposing to privatize the FAA, abolish TSA and halve the Department of Transportation's budget. DOT should consider itself lucky it's not one of the five departments Paul would eliminate as president.

POLITICO reached out to all seven of the Republican 2012 campaigns; none chose to flesh out infrastructure positions.

The GOP may choose to ignore the many problems facing America's infrastructure, but those problems aren't going away. Economists estimated in 2011 that the United States would need more than $2 trillion in investments just to bring its infrastructure up to date. Roughly one-quarter of America's bridges are considered "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete," the same rating given to the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed and killed 13 in 2007.

rest at http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/03/396601/gop-candidates-infrastructure/