Editorial: River Industry Clings To Hope In Midst Of ‘Poverty’

An op-ed piece in the January 27 Washington Post goes into great detail about how the mood of America is morose and grouchy and how everyone, even former supporters, are in opposition to President Obama. Joel Achenbach writes: “The American people know what they don’t like, which is: everything.”

It may well be that Achenbach has come quite close in characterizing the American people at present. Let us suggest that once almost idolized, Obama has succeeded in giving us a year of “untransparency” and lack of focus on what polls say the people really want. A Washington Post promotional tag line over the op-ed piece reads: ” The Audacity of Nope.” One of Webster’s definitions of the word audacious is “(2) not restrained by a sense of shame or propriety.” It seems to us that President Obama is not at all restrained by the fact that he has not kept oodles of his campaign promises, a “nonkeeping” which has drawn the ire of the public as well as his political opponents. Perhaps morose and grouchy are rightfully in vogue.

But let’s take another look at hope. We have stated in our headline that the “River Industry Clings To Hope In Midst Of ‘Poverty.’” Poverty is a good word right now, because the indebtedness of the U.S. is so great it is said that there is not enough money in the world to maintain such a debt. We are talking about being multi-trillions in debt to other nations and having an empty bean pot with no bag of beans in the pantry. As we have repeated often, there is so much infrastructure work to be done in America and too much of it is going undone. As for our own river-industry case, our hope has been for decades that Congress and the president in power would see the prudence of maintaining our nation’s infrastructure—the total transportation infrastructure as just one example. A really good start on infrastructure maintenance and improvement could be accomplished with an annual expenditure of $20 billion, which would at least give us a start in erasing the project backlog. That amount is miniscule when compared with the amount of the stimulus money, most of which has never been put to use.

We now find ourselves in a position of disarray, with no money tucked away in the sugar bowl and no beans in the pantry. Despite that, for the past several years Congress (Republicans and Democrats alike) has overwhelmingly supported the idea of passing a new Water Resources Development Act, which would include proposals for accomplishing much needed maintenance and lock replacement on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Now, even if that congressional point of view still stands, from where would the money come? With every new dawn, President Obama uses the bully pulpit to announce his intentions of giving away more money we can’t afford and don’t have. That is why the American people are morose and grouchy.

We do not agree with Achenbach’s conclusion that the American people don’t like “everything.” We in the river industry and related stakeholders have been patient for a long time. We have held out hope that one day what needs to be done to and for the waterway infrastructure of the U.S. will be undertaken at a pace that means it may one day be accomplished. Considering the size and importance of the waterways system, there is comparatively little that needs to be done to put it in good working order.

At this point, industry may be far more patient than the public. What the public would like is for Congress and the administration of President Obama to tighten its belt and not (sorry to have to say this) continue spending like a bunch of drunken sailors.

During the week of his State of the Union speech, President Obama announced a freeze on all discretionary spending not related to national security and defense. Even before his annual report to the nation, critics denounced the freeze as far too little. Supporters said that he has to start somewhere.

In this scenario one wonders how many more decades the river industry will have to cling to hope.

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