The Bridge to Obama's Re-election Hopes

A lot of people have talking about the Brent Spence Bridge and Obama's statements about it.  Since I am a Cincinnatian, I have to weigh in on this.  Read below what both sides are saying.

Statement of Chairman Alex M. Triantafilou, Chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party:

President Obama will visit Ohio today using the Brent Spence bridge as a nice political background for a campaign speech.  The tri-state region is united around the fact that our aging bridge needs to be replaced.  The bridge is important to the economic vitality of this area.  But, the President and his team know that this bridge is years away from completion and has nothing to do with creating jobs.  Today's L.A. Times online said it best: "Obama touts his jobs plan at an Ohio bridge that won't qualify.  President Obama chose this bridge and this location because he recognizes that his political future is bleak and his reelection chances are slim.  He comes to the critical swing state of Ohio to campaign--not to help our region or to create jobs.  As is typical of big spending Democrats, he is dangling the prospect of a shiny new bridge to our community hoping to entice voters.  I believe the voters of Southwest Ohio will see clear through this political stunt.  President Obama should stop the campaign and return to Washington and begin serious discussions with Congress to rectify the serious fiscal challenges our nation faces."

From Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director of ProgressOhio

He praises Obama for his visit to the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati and his proposal to spend $50 billion in taxpayer's money to repair it.  He calls the bridge "functionally obsolete".  He thinks that this will create "hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country".  But, he claims, that Boehner, Chabot, and Schmidt are against allowing the good American people to have these jobs.  He accuses them of being in favor of "millionaire tax giveaways".

Here is my take:

I wonder how many jobs were lost because many critical shipments were delayed when Obama tied up traffic with his pointless visit to my city.  I don't agree with the assessment that our bridge needs to replaced.  Yes, it does need a lot of repairs and maintainance, but I just don't see wasting so much money tearing it down and rebuilding it.  This would take years and years to complete and it would be a long, long, time before any real economic benefit would be realized.  As for Obama's motives, I will not judge and don't know what is going through his mind, but his actions will not accomplish anything good.  But I also agree with Brian that our Republican congressman also are willing to run over the poor and middle class to pay off their rich buddies.  Two of out three of them voted for the bailouts.  Two out of three of them voted for the Smith-Leahy America Invents Act which takes away inventors' rights and unconstitutionally gives them to "the first to file".  The list goes on and on, but roughly two out three Democrats, including Obama, voted for these same "giveaways".  All this partisan finger pointing is as pointless as Obama's visit to Cincinnati.  People need to see that its not about Republicans against Democrats, but is us (the taxpayers) against them (the politicians of both parties, except for a few like Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Walter Jones).