Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Great Orange Boehner can't deliver the goods
What do you call a Speaker of the House of Representatives, the leader of the majority party who can not get funding for a major highway project that is essential to his district? Failure would be a good place to start.
-Nearly every day, rush-hour traffic backs up for miles on both ends of the overburdened Brent Spence Bridge, which spans the Ohio River and links Cincinnati with its suburbs in Kentucky.Yep! A leader that can't control his people is what you might call a bull goose fuck-up.
The bridge, one of the busiest in the U.S. interstate system, has been dubbed "functionally obsolete" by the federal government because its narrow four lanes on each level - originally designed as three lanes - create massive bottlenecks for traffic.
For commuters and businesses desperate for an improved crossing, the good news is that they have a powerful friend in Congress: U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican whose district includes Cincinnati suburbs.
But a $2.4 billion plan to replace the Interstate 71/75 bridge has gotten little help from Boehner's House of Representatives, which abandoned efforts to pass long-term federal highway funding in favor of two 90-day extensions, the second of which passed last week.
In the process, the highway bill has become a symbol of Boehner's frustrations in dealing with budget-conscious Republicans allied with the Tea Party movement.
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