Every day, millions of Americans commute using cars and other forms of transportation, which puts a tremendous strain on the nation's infrastructure such as roads, bridges and overpasses. People notice potholes and cracks in the roads but what they do not realize is that America's infrastructure is at risk of becoming completely deficient. Every four years the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) crates a national infrastructure report card. In 2012 ASCE gave America's bridges a grade of C+ and roads a D (infrastructurereportcard.org). America's problem is growing and will not stop growing until something is done about it, politicians once again cannot seem to agree on a solution and nothing tangible is being done about this growing issue. America's infrastructure must be repaired as soon as possible because it is the nation's backbone and without worthy roads and bridges the economy will collapse and lives will be lost. The United States is lagging behind countries that most people would not consider as having good infrastructure but surprisingly enough countries such as Malaysia and Barbados have higher grades than the United States (Lane). Most people agree that the infrastructure needs to be updated but no one can agree how to fix the problem, whether it be increase taxes or more government funding.

Each state is responsible for the upkeep of their infrastructure through state taxes as well as federal grants. Some states however are poorer than other and cannot keep their infrastructure maintained to the same standard as a richer state, natural disasters also can decimate the infrastructure of a region. For example, in 2015 South Carolina experienced record flooding that decimated the midland infrastructure. Even before the flood the state's infrastructure struggled greatly and it is estimated that 20% of the state's 8,300 bridges are either structurally deficient or structurally obsolete, it is also estimated that an increase of 500 million dollars per year would be necessary to repair the roads (Lieb, Collins). The big problem with South Carolina is that it relies almost entirely on its gas tax to fund road repairs and maintenance. This practice brings up another issue, the state of South Carolina has not increased its gas tax since 1987 (Lieb, Collins). A tax crease would be justified to make up for inflation and the increasing cost of construction. Governor Nikki Haley had proposed a bill that would increase state allot more of the state's budget to infrastructure repair and upkeep. Several ideas were brought up during the legislative assembly to help repair the roads for example: reforming the agency in charge of road spending, raise the gas, lower other taxes to offset the higher price at the pump (Self). However, no one could agree to a on a final plan. As previously mentioned the biggest problem with fixing the infrastructure of the state and of the country as a whole is getting politicians to agree on a solution. Due to the severity of the flooding that happened South Carolina may be looking at hundreds of millions in additional spending to repair the infrastructure damaged by the flood waters. The federal government will send monetary aid to help the rebuilding process as it usually does after natural disasters, however the state must also pay for a portion of the repairs and the big issue here is does South Carolina have enough money set aside to do its part of the repairs (Lieb, Collins).

To rebuild and repair the nation's roads and bridges funding must come from somewhere, state legislators must find a way to create plans that will redirect funding from other areas or pass bills that will increase taxes. Some states such as Vermont for example raised its gas tax by 6 cents per gallon in 2013 in order to match a federal grant that they had received for natural disaster relief (Lieb, Collins). Failing infrastructure is not acceptable, especially not in a country that is regarded as a world standard for wealth and prosperity. However some people would argue that there is not actually an infrastructure crisis and that the "crisis" is caused by poor money management. Take Heywood Sander, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas for example, he believes that states misspend their money. He uses the city of St. Louis as an example and says that the city authorized an expansion of its convention center at a cost of 120 million and also spent 60 million dollars on a new football stadium (Sanders). The city of St. Louis could have easily spent that money on other things such as road and bridge repairs. However, to say that an infrastructure crisis does not actually exist is simply ridiculous, the country's overall report card is a D (infrastructurereportcard.org). This report card is a representation of the whole country not just a city or a state, so according to Heywood Sander's argument either every state is misspending its money and disregarding public interest or there is actually some sort of crisis going on. Patrick Brennan a writer for National Review writes in an article that the infrastructure crisis is a fictitious idea that liberals have devised to increase government spending, he does however acknowledge that the infrastructure is not in the best shape it could be in but that no significant action should be taken because it still gets the job done for now (Brennan). The problem with this theory is that even if the infrastructure at this instant of still getting the job done it needs to be maintained and properly funded in order to avoid an even bigger crisis in 20 or 30 years when the infrastructure starts to falls even further behind. The projected spending needed to bring the infrastructure up to par would be around 3 trillion dollars according to the ASCE (infrastructurereportcard.org).

In the past few years America has begun to experience an increasing amount of bridge collapses and road failures. These events can be caused by excessive rain which can weaken a structure's foundation or simply by the age of the structure and the amount of wear it has endured over the years. The most recent bridge collapse was in January where a bridge collapsed and killed a construction worker, another terrifying collapse happened last July where a bridge on I-10 collapsed critically injuring a motorist and shutting down the major highway for several days (Swearingen). The big issue here is that these events will become more and more common as the infrastructure continues to age and weaken, that is why it is crucial to find a way to set political opinion aside and come together to create a good long term solution to this problem before more lives are senselessly lost. Michael Strain wrote an article about how the government could devise a plan to repair the infrastructure while keeping the support of the Republican Party which tends to be scared off by the infrastructure issue. He stated that the construction projects should be carefully prioritized with the more important or urgent projects coming first, and that individual states and towns should have a voice in what projects are completed first because they know what needs to be done locally  (Strain). He also discusses how the states should closely monitor projects being taken on by the private sector to ensure that they are being completed in the shortest time possible and at the lowest possible expense (Strain). Another issue with developing a solution is that Americans tend to not care about an issue until it impacts them, only after the issue hinders their daily life they become involved and are motivated to do something about the issue. "When the pain gets bad enough, people will support change" (Kanter). This is the sad truth, not enough people are aware or care that the nation's backbone is crumbling all around them. Citizens are also generally unwilling to pay increased taxes on gas or road usage. What they do not realize is that states get money to fund infrastructure such as roads and bridges from taxes, perhaps a campaign to raise public awareness about this issue could help the public realize that the tax increases and other government initiatives are justified. 

Another alarming truth about this issue is that the United States' economy is directly related to infrastructure. If the companies cannot ship and deliver goods in a reasonable amount of time the productivity of the nation will drop (Powell). It is crucial to keep roads and bridges in good repair to keep trucks from having to take longer routes, which would disrupt the country's supply chain and ultimately affect productivity. The time to resolve this issue is now, not in 50 years when everything begins to fail at once. A short documentary by CBS called "America's Failing Infrastructure" is about the state of America's infrastructure shows the impact that infrastructure used day by day is taken for granted until it is suddenly taken away. The video shows the Lake Champlain Bridge that spans from New York to Vermont, this bridge was closed in 2009 on 10 minute notice after an underwater inspection showed that the bridge was too dangerous to be used. The film shows the importance of infrastructure through a man named Mike Sweeny, he is a delivery man that lives in New York but works in Vermont and since the closure of the bridge he has to row across the lake to get to work This goes to show that all of the infrastructure is taken for granted until it is loss, and this loss of infrastructure will continue to increase if nothing is done about it soon. Bridges and roads are aging quickly since most of them have not been replaced since they were first created. Another factor to consider is inclement weather, it is mostly unpredictable and can strike at any time, and if the infrastructure is not strong it stands the chance of being damaged or destroyed, the risks of inclement weather will continue to increase as climate change will make sea levels rise which will be a major hazard for seaside infrastructure (Mastroianni). Take South Carolina as an example, according to the Associated Press the flooding caused the closure of about 260 roads and 150 bridge (Lieb, Collins). These closures disrupted everyday commutes as well as emergency services such as paramedics and police which is a big problem.

Legislator need to come together for the greater good of society, it is important to resolve this issue that impacts every aspect of life. Without strong reliable infrastructure life would change drastically. It is important for government officials to propose bills that will reform the budget. Governor Nikki Haley wanted to raise the state's gas tax by 10 cents per gallon and in exchange lower the income tax from 7 percent to 5 percent. The problem with her proposal is that it relied on strong economic growth over the next few years and it also tied in a major tax reform with infrastructure which scared many legislators away (Self). This bill would have revolutionized the infrastructure spending for South Carolina, and the public would have saved a lot of money due to the 2 percent decrease in income tax. Had Haley's bill passed, the state's budget for roads and bridges would have increased from 400 million dollars to 1.5 Billion dollars (Self).  Another issue with reforming infrastructure legislation not only in South Carolina but nationwide is that there will always be politicians that oppose the bill, for example Senator Tom Davis from South Carolina filibustered an infrastructure spending bill because he was opposed to the tax increase, however he still wanted the state to increase spending. If the state increases spending on infrastructure but does not get any revenue then the state will inevitably end up in a financial crisis (Self). Another example of progress is that Congress authorized a transfer of money from the United States Treasury' general fund to the federal highway fund (Golson). The reality is, if politicians cannot agree on a plan of action soon the citizens will be the ones to pay for the insubordination of their leaders. However a good sign of progress is that congress is starting to add funding and even if the South Carolina has yet to create a final solution, it at least shows that the issue is not being ignored and the government is trying to do something about nation's decrepit infrastructure. 

The state of the nation's infrastructure will continue to deteriorate if nothing is done about it, the last two report cards issued by the ASCE have been identical showing no progress over four years, this is very alarming because there is so much road work going on that it leads one to wonder, are they even working on the right thing? Instead of focusing on making highways wider and building new garages and stadiums, why not just repair and maintain the infrastructure that is already in place. Instead of building a new bridge for 70 million dollars they should simply fix the bridges that are already there for a fraction of the cost. Infrastructure poses several different problems and brings up the one thing all Americans are weary of, tax increases. No one wants tax increases and that would not be a problem currently if the government had been more diligent with their upkeep of the infrastructure. The government was basically procrastinating and putting off the fact that eventually they would need to do something about the infrastructure. All of the damage and wear has accumulated like homework that has been put off until the last minute and needs to be completed almost overnight. This country has a lower infrastructure grade than much poorer and less industrialized countries because Americans take the luxuries such as highways and bridges for granted without noticing how much money and work is necessary to bring the infrastructure up to par with the other industrialized countries. To put this into perspective, China spends approximately 7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on infrastructure while America spends only a mere 2 percent of its GDP as stated by the CBS video "America's Failing Infrastructure". Something needs to be done about this problem now, not down the road when it gets even worse because when it gets worse it will only require more money and be even harder to come to a consensus about what needs to be done. Infrastructure is what keeps this country together and without it life simply would not be the same. The time to act was 20 years ago and now society is starting to feel the results of the neglect that has impacted the infrastructure, something must be done about this issue now before the state of the nation's infrastructure becomes increasingly deficient and dangerous.

