Figures. Obama Touts Jobs/Spending Plan at Ohio Bridge That Won’t Qualify

Barack Obama is heading to Ohio today to promote his latest spending plan at the Ohio-Kentucky Brent Spence Bridge… Obama wants to repair the bridge with his proposed stimulus cash. He even mentioned the bridge in his campaign speech to Congress to promote his latest “stimulus.”

In this June 30, 2011 file photo, traffic crosses the Brent Spence Bridge on southbound Interstate 71/75 linking Cincinnati and Covington, Ky. The outdated and overcrowded bridge has become part of President Barack Obama’s pitch for his plan to create jobs, an example of a lagging infrastructure fix plucked from the states of Republican leadership in Congress. (AP/The Enquirer, Carrie Cochran)

Unfortunately, fixing the bridge is not the plan. The two states are going to build a new bridge nearby instead.
LA Times Blog reported:

You know all those rusting bridges that President Obama wants to spend billions more dollars repairing to allegedly stimulate the economy?

He’s headed out to one today which he’s described as a “bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky that’s on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America.” It is on a busy trucking route, spanning the Ohio River between Covington, Ky., and Cincinnati.

It’s the Brent Spence Bridge. It doesn’t really need repairs. It’s got decades of good life left in its steel spans. It’s just overloaded. The bridge was built to handle 85,000 cars and trucks a day, which seemed like a lot back during construction in the Nixon era.

Today, the bridge sort of handles more than 150,000 vehicles a day with frequent jam-ups.

So, plans are not to repair or replace the Brent Spence Bridge. But to build another bridge nearby to ease the loads.

But here’s the problem, as John Merline graphically notes here, that could screw up all those envisioned photo op shots of the Democrat and the traffic:

The president’s jobs bill is designed for “immediate” highway spending.

And the new $2.3 billion Cincy bridge is not scheduled to even start construction for probably four years, long after Republicans have scheduled the Obama presidency for completion.

And without delays, it wouldn’t be finished until 2022, when no one will be counting Obama’s rounds of golf.

#1 September 22, 2011 at 11:54 am
REDPILLPATRIOT commented:

Hopefully the bridge is so bad it will fall on top of his sorry A$$
#2 September 22, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Dave-O commented:

Please don’t confuse President Hopey-Changey with the facts. It gets in the way of his narrative.
#3 September 22, 2011 at 12:06 pm
#1AMERICAN commented:

total a-hole…he doesn’t give a $HIT about the bridges…he is in total campaign mode while bashing Bush and the repubs…time to send to mooslum packing
#4 September 22, 2011 at 12:08 pm
patman commented:

Plus, Kentucky OWNS that bridge.
#5 September 22, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Mad Hatter commented:

More symbolism over substance.

Do you remember when the “shovel ready jobs” a year ago?

Do you also remember all of the staged photo events the day of, or the day after the “shovel ready jobs” were to take place? The construction workers at sites of old bridges, and road construction sites? Remember those?

Remember all of those stupid road signs that accompanied the sites? “Putting American Back To Work” “The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act”.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/14/signs-of-the-stimulus/

I wonder if anyone in the Alinsky media will ask Obama why this bridge didn’t get repaired or replaced with stimulus money last year?

Oh wait, that’s right, shovel ready jobs weren’t so shovel ready. Right Barry?
#6 September 22, 2011 at 12:20 pm
mg4us commented:

here is Senator Mitch McConnell to Obama

“So I would suggest, Mr. President, that you think about ways to actually help the people of Kentucky and Ohio, instead of how you can use their roads and bridges as a backdrop for making a political point.

“If you’re truly interested in helping our state — if you really want to help our state — then come back to Washington and work with Republicans on legislation that will actually do something to revive our economy and create jobs. And forget the political theater.”
#7 September 22, 2011 at 12:26 pm
lizzy84 commented:

@REDPILLPATRIOT/#1

Preach it,brother.
the LA Times could also shed some light on =^[.]^= with a certain video if they’d release it!

link@:http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/226104/i-l-times-i-suppresses-obamas-khalidi-bash-tape/andrew-c-mccarthy
#8 September 22, 2011 at 12:27 pm
AuntieMadder commented:

“The president’s jobs bill is designed for “immediate” highway spending.”

Yeah. So was his 2009 Stimulus bill.
#9 September 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Patty commented:

Two weeks and the bridge in Louisville, Ky has been closed and causing cacaos in both Indiana and Kentucky. For years years and years the two states have been fighting over where should the build a NEW bridge.

NOW the two states are getting bit. They could have had a new bridge by now. But on the pickering and fighting and should they charge a Toll to get the bridge built…blah blah blah..

NOW there are two little four lane bridges that traffic is piling up on for miles and mile as far as the eye can see.

Bureaucracy would rather have turtle trails, bike trails and flowers all around for you to see.

While, semi tractors trailing are on hold or waiting to get businesses rolling. Temper flare and this bridge conflict is literally suspending growth and down a bridge closed…Karma bit Louisville in the butt and now, TRAFFIC LINES AND FRUSTRATED PEOPLE.

This is when government with no leadership runs a muck. And Democrats have been in control for many years here.
#10 September 22, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Patty commented:

http://www.wave3.com/story/15446079/drivers-frustrated-about-traffic-due-to-bridge-closure
#11 September 22, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Patty commented:

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R – KY, made these remarks Wednesday on the Senate floor:

“President Obama may think the best way to distract people from the challenges we face is to stand near a bridge in a swing state and pit one group of Americans against another, and hope his critics look bad if they don’t go along with him. But I don’t think he’s fooling anybody,” said McConnell.

______________________

The true fault lies in Louisville, Ky and in Indiana….this has been going on for 20 YEARS.

So, political you bet it is. Mayor of Louisville have been Democrats. This is a state issue and the bridges have only been talked about. What happens with The Kennedy Bridge falls too. And there are suggestions that it too need work.
#12 September 22, 2011 at 12:41 pm
tc commented:

A Bridge Too Far

perfect metaphor…..
#13 September 22, 2011 at 12:49 pm
big L commented:

Brent Spence was democrat congressman from Northern Kentucky. Participated in Bretton Woods Treaty Negotiations that led to founding of the IMF, More donk crack-pottery so of course Obama wants to honor him.
That Christine LaGarde head of IMF worked for a number of years for a ….wait for it…Chicago law firm!!!
#14 September 22, 2011 at 12:55 pm
myohmy commented:

Obama is just for optic NO substance.
#15 September 22, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Adirondack Patriot commented:

Smartest. President. Evahhhhhhhh.
#16 September 22, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Multitude commented:

Foam imperial Roman pillars. Photographically crafted upward looking messianic optics. Brandenberg Gates and emotionally charged, adoring German masses. Strong government-constructed architectures. Rallies with fainting women, fist-clenched men. Proclamations of workers solidarity, attacks on bankers and the rich, nationalization of industry. Advancement of social medicine, eugenics and programs to require the nation’s people to become physically fit for the good of society. An economical, energy-responsible people’s wagon. Warnings against those individuals and groups who dare think and act against the Nation’s Will.

I’m not talking of post-Weimar Germany and the rise of a Reich. I am quite coherent, however, that the second generation Progressives are stealing from the playbook of their first-generation predecessors.
#17 September 22, 2011 at 2:23 pm
Valerie commented:

Okay. Where’s this guy’s staff? This guy is the POTUS. He is not, and we don’t want him to, go nosing around in all the paperwork submitted by Congress and his administration to pick and choose examples of worthwhile projects for his programs.

Neither the Bush administration nor the Clinton administration had this deficit in fundamental competence. I wonder if the smart sector of the Democratic Party went Galt over this administration, or were just stiff-armed.
#18 September 22, 2011 at 4:03 pm
donh commented:

That’s the same bridge seen in my song choice of the day Little Wayne rap BLING BLING >>>…. http://youtu.be/LXDoxxlgNG0
#19 September 22, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Rock commented:

Who on Donkey Kong 1′s team schedules these events without due diligence, or do they do not care he comes off looking like a fool once the whole story comes to light.