Here in Maryland, we’re caught up in the same winter storm that has hit most of the country. Yesterday it was a beautiful snowfall, but overnight it sleeted and became a thick layer of ice coating everything. We ventured out this afternoon and had an exhausting walk through the neighborhood. Exhausting because many people had not shoveled or salted their sidewalks, and the street was also a sheet of ice. (We live on a side street that rarely gets salted, and I think in the 5 years we’ve been here I have seen a plow … once.)
So the streets are a mess, and all week I have noticed numerous utility crews out repairing broken water lines and downed power lines. This is not boding well for a quick cleanup. Especially since the wind is now blowing outside, and the tree branches are encased in ice.
This can, of course, be all remedied with money. If there were more plows, more salt, if water lines were replaced as they aged, and tree limbs trimmed before they come down in an ice storm.
I pay a fair amount in property taxes each year, but where does it go? There is still not enough money for schools, roads, and bridges. Interestingly enough, there’s a bill headed for the Senate right now that would give more money for schools, roads, and bridges. Not a single Republican voted for it in the House, and by all reports, the Dems in the Senate will not stand together the way their House colleagues did.
I am pleased with the leadership I’ve seen from President Obama. I wish that would “trickle down” and magically transform our Congress into legislation that would actually help our country. Instead, we have the same grandstanding, claiming that this bill is “loaded with pork” — when the irony is that this time, we need that pork. Pork actually puts people to work. Tax cuts for the wealthy, well, that puts money back into the pockets of the wealthy.
