The wave of natural disasters continues to batter the United States in the form of wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and heat domes. Money to deal with such horrific events is, effectively, no longer possible through the current budget processes at federal, state, county, tribal, port, and city levels. Nor can these government entities deal simultaneously with the chronic crises of housing, homelessness, decaying roads, collapsing bridges, electrical grid failures, lack of broadband service, deteriorating health care systems, outdated water treatment facilities… ad nauseam et ad infinitum.
As I have written about before (see RELATED LINKS below), bold moves must be taken, as was done by Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) during the worst of the Great Depression era. Even before Hoover and Roosevelt, other presidents, e.g., Washington, Adams, and Lincoln, seized on the idea of a public bank to successfully deal with the crises of their eras.
“A revitalized Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) can effectively address today’s daunting challenges like it did during the Great Depression and World War II. The RFC rescued thousands of banks, businesses, homes and farms; stabilized the railroads; rebuilt communities after environmental calamities; built bridges, dams and aqueducts across the nation; and brought electricity and appliances to rural America. The RFC accomplished these gigantic feats during the Great Depression through judicious lending, not spending, and returned a profit to the government and its taxpayers while doing so” [ Source: To prevent economic disaster, Congress should resurrect the Great Depression-era RFC]
The means to bring us through the current crises are available, immediately. The $5 Trillion National Infrastructure Bank is, speaking frankly and in the vernacular, a “no-brainer.” HR 4052 (National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2023), with its 42 sponsors, is sitting right in front of Congress. Its passage will bring the necessary fiscal means to repair and replace our infrastructure while building for the future. Support is broad across the nation but more needs to be said through resolutions at the level of state legislatures, county and city councils, and other government entities such as port authorities. Awareness at these levels must come from citizens who inform their representatives of the existence of the legislation and the need for the off-budget infrastructure bank.
HR 4052 is tantamount to a gift from Santa Claus. But even Santa needs his helpers. We can be helpers by sending a copy of this article (or a link to it) to our representatives at all levels of government, municipal to state to federal.
