Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate wants us to be more like China. After all, they’re the paragon of economic stimulus programs:"We've got bridges and roads in need of repair and thousands of people in need of work. Why aren’t we rebuilding America?” Warren says in the 30-second ad. “Our competitors are putting people to work, building a future. China invests 9 percent of its GDP in infrastructure. America? We’re at just 2.4 percent. We can do better. We can build a foundation for a strong new economy and get people to Massachusetts to work right now."
Careful what you wish for Ms. Warren. You might just get it:
A nearly 330-foot-long section of a ramp of the eight-lane Yangmingtan Bridge in the city of Harbin dropped 100 feet to the ground. Four trucks plummeted with it, resulting in three deaths and five injuries.
The 9.6-mile bridge is one of three built over the Songhua River in that area in the past four years. China’s economic stimulus program in 2009 and 2010 helped the country avoid most of the effects of the global economic downturn, but involved incurring heavy debt to pay for the rapid construction of new bridges, highways and high-speed rail lines all over the country.
Questions about the materials used during the construction and whether the projects were properly engineered have been the subject of national debate ever since a high-speed train plowed into the back of a stopped train on the same track on July 23 last year in the eastern city of Wenzhou. The crash killed 40 people and injured 191; a subsequent investigation blamed in particular flaws in the design of the signaling equipment.
I believe we should roll that China train down to crawl, Ms. Warren.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/world/asia/collapse-of-new-bridge-underscores-chinas-infrastructure-concerns.htmlhttp://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/elizabeth-warren-ad-lets-be-more-china_649175.html
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