As if on cue, Walter Mondale of Minnesota proves my point that it’s government and environmental regulations that are keeping infrastructure projects from getting built, not a lack of funds. This is from today’s New York Times “Room for Debate” section discussing whether a bridge between Wisconsin and Minnesota, supported by Michelle Bachmann, should be built. An excerpt from the intro:

Such a proposal would not normally command national attention, but critics of Ms. Bachmann have seized on it to say that it is hypocritical of her to support such a huge public project in her district while attacking government spending otherwise. The bridge in question would be mostly paid for by the taxpayers of Wisconsin and Minnesota. But it needs a federal exemption from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to get the go-ahead, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, a Minnesotan, and environmentalists have argued that the project would essentially gut the law. They have proposed a scaled-down replacement bridge instead.

And here’s Mondale:

In 1968, I joined my colleague and friend, Senator Gaylord Nelson, to sponsor the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. This important legislation, that now protects more than 250 rivers in 40 states, is at risk of being negated by a small group of people in Minnesota and Wisconsin and their desire for a mammoth freeway bridge over the St. Croix River. In the nearly 43-year history of the program, there has never been a bridge or infrastructure project built over a Wild and Scenic River, and we should not start with this one.

Here’s a picture and artist’s rendering of where this eyesore of a bridge will be built:

Well, there you have it. Let’s not put people to work on a bipartisan infrastructure project paid for mostly with state dollars because it might spoil the view of a giant industrial plant.

This decision to build this bridge should rest solely on the economic merits of the project. If Dems want to put people to work, there’s gotta be a little more, as Mondale writes, “common sense” in approving projects that will actually put people to work.