Bipartisan

The Case for (Literal) Bridge-Building

Why now is the time for infrastructure investments.

With elections looming, it’s unlikely any substantial stimulus will get through gridlocked Congress, but that won’t stop Robert H. Frank and P. J. O’Rourke from arguing that it should. The liberal Cornell professor and conservative satirist tag-teamed a USA Today op-ed making the bipartisan case for infrastructure investments. Of course, Democrats need little convincing, but the conservative case is noteworthy. “Falling bridges, crumbling roads, bursting dams … and leaking sewage are on no one’s agenda for cutting government costs,” the authors write. And in fact, investing now is the fiscally responsible thing to do: further delays will actually up the cost of construction and widen the deficit.