MUNT HOPE Case Study

Exemplar case: Kathy is a married 45-year old mother of one and she has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Kathy has always been a positive person in every situation and is quite known at her church for her smile and uplifting words of encouragement. Kathy’s husband and teenage daughter came to visit her at the hospital and were initially shocked and saddened by her sickly appearance. Her husband

“Today I face you and say the challenges are real. They are serious and many,” Obama stated on inauguration day. Obama need to pull things together with bold and quick actions. Yet it seemed that borrowing was the only answer to this out of control situation. And he did just that, taking hundred of billions to bail out the banks and other institutions; tens of billions more for the auto industry; $275 billion for homeowners and the mortgage lenders; and $787 billion stimulus package to jump-start an economy spiraling downward. Much like the Bush administration, Obama and his administration are borrowing just as much, added to the deficit. It is unclear what exactly the future will look like for America as the economy is spiraling downward and other countries are becoming stronger.

While the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1956 created the U.S. Interstate system and brought a nation together, the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1973 would later create division in federal and state political parties over future funding concerns. In the short run, President Nixon considered this act as a positive step for transportation and the economy. However, in the long run, this act led to the eroding of HTF’s, leaving both state and federal government debating over how to proceed in funding a transportation infrastructure that is at present time slowly crumbling. Political differences between federal and state agencies have brought the modernization process of the transportation infrastructure to a snail’s pace. In addition, the lengthy

While it was not a major issue in the just concluded campaigns, the future of Texas ' infrastructure did receive attention in the two major Texas political parties (Republican and Democratic). However, the political parties reveal differing positions and philosophies on ways of tackling the issue. To be specific, the Democrats believe that infrastructure is important to the future economic prosperity (LePatner, 2010). Further, the party argues that broadband networks, schools, water systems, and energy are some of the infrastructures that are readily ripe for investment. As such, the party hopes that investments in such fields may help address other related issues such as unemployment too. Sadly, the Democratic Party does not mention how additional funding would be injected in infrastructure. Instead, the members weigh in on some tools that may be vital in helping Texas to fund infrastructure projects (Schiller, Bruun, & Kenworthy, 2010). The party promises to continue encouraging investments in infrastructure by state and local governments by creating a lasting edition of the Build America Bonds program. Conversely, the Republicans appear unfavorably on using government funds for sidewalks,

The U.S. national debt is currently $18 trillion dollars and it is rising fast. The national debt today is the highest the U.S. has ever seen. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he declared the U.S. should avoid going into debt. If the nation end up in a deficit, that the debtors were responsible for paying off the debt so that it doesn’t burden the future generations. Like the rest of this advice in his Farewell Address, the nation ignored it. The ideal goal right now should be to stop the debt from increasing anymore because it is impossible to stop the debt from increasing and expect to pay it off in this generation.

Many Americans today are aware that the United States is in debt, however, some may not realize by how much. Currently, the United States National Debt is up to 18 trillion dollars and is steadily increasing. This is a serious problem for the U.S., especially for millennials, who are going to be the ones living and dealing with the debt left behind for them. Increased spending, borrowing from China, and interest on the money borrowed are setting up our economy for an eventual crash, one that the upcoming generation may not be prepared for. Every dollar that accumulates into the debt will have to be repaid with interest at some point, making it harder to pay back. To gain a better understanding of how the U.S. dug itself into such a deep hole, one should start at the beginning of where the debt started.

Another large problem was our transportation, which originally was a network of buses. Now, we use a hyperloop system, where tracks are both elevated and underground–similar to the High Line in New York City. At each individual train stop, there are public plazas with businesses. Encouraging social cohesion within a community by improving and adding public spaces builds on local economies. That’s actually one of the problems that we

Introduction: Federal grant agendas offer state and local governments varying steps of flexibility over the use of grant funds. For example, block grants provide only extensive factors for using those funds, leaving state and local government’s significant liberty when they make spending results. By contrast, state and local governments face more spending limitations on how they use categorical formula grants. For example, definite standards govern the types of roads that state governments may improve using federal highway grant funds. Though, among all probable road schemes that meet the recognized standards, states are normally able to select which ones to fund. Project grants deliver state and local governments the minimum tractability over

In order to create realistic solutions, it is essential to see how Californians have funded infrastructure projects in the past. Before California became the populous state it is today; not much infrastructure was built because the demand was not set in place. As more people moved to California as a result of the California Gold Rush, roads were cleared to make commutes easier. Property tax mostly funded these projects. It was not until the creation of the 1909 State Highway Act that significant infrastructure was established which included a 34-route 3,000-mile system. Although this highway act lead to a substantial creation of highway infrastructure, “initial estimates proved inadequate, and the state required additional highway bond measures

You might have heard recently that the United States Trust Fund is currently experiencing a solvency issue due to an increased cost associated with financing road projects. The members of the United States Congress, as well as numerous other influential leaders, have been discussing means of addressing this “broken” Highway Trust Fund. This issue has been consistently thrown on the back burner for some time and due to this procrastination an issue that would have been an easy fix a few years ago has now ballooned into a much larger issue. Lately it seems like every time I turn on the news I have seen news reports of bridges collapsing and pot holes getting worse, it scary to think that I will one day have children driving on these roads if

Their actions come on the heels of discussion earlier this month with Holmes County Engineer Chris Young, who proposed the measure as a means of improving the county's infrastructure.

With the upcoming presidential election, this year there is one very unnerving fact that has received overwhelming bipartisan recognition; America has a serious problem with infrastructure and something must be done. Across the country, dams, roads, sewage systems and bridges were built with Works Progress Administration funds in the 1930s. Seventy years later, they are in despair. As a nation, we must address Americas’ failing infrastructure and close the ever-increasing infrastructure deficit before the backbone of America crumbles right under our own two feet. To do so U.S. policymakers must act now to raise funds, without increasing our national debt. No intervention by the government will lead to a continuance of deteriorating the health

This is what tax dollars should be used for, improvements for the city and all the people of the city, not just

Throughout the course of history there have been many advances in the world of infrastructure, mostly occurring in the 1800’s and the 1900’s. Infrastructure is defined as the basic physical and organizational structure needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. This definition shows how important infrastructure is to people’s lives today. It affects how people live, travel, and communicate with one another. Three men who made huge contributions in the world of infrastructure were Robert Moses, Richard Ravitch and Othmar Hermann Ammann. All three of these men were involved in designing numerous landmarks, highways, bridges, tunnels, and other forms of infrastructure that today we take for granted. Although all of these men were involved in infrastructure in the New York metropolitan area, their contributions, personalities, and the public’s opinion of them were all different.

Our transportation system, quite arguably, may embody our most vital system, as Infrastructure and Democracy clarifies, “access is the hallmark of a great infrastructure” (Jones, Reinecke). By great contrast, our roads remain a current issue. 42 percent of America’s urban highways remain congested, costing the United States 101 billion dollars in wasted time and fuel each year. Also, the32 percent of roads, in poor or mediocre condition, cost the average traveler $324 per year (American Infrastructure Report Card). Unfortunately, updating the highway systems seems longer than it may seem, as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that from proposal to completion most highways will need nine to nineteen years to fix (Leduc, Wilson 129). In addition to the roads, our bridges are failing just as much. One of every nine bridges within the United States is categorized as structurally deficient. The average bridge 42 years old, and in order to eliminate the bridge renovation backlog, our country would need to invest twenty and a half billion dollars until 2028 (American Infrastructure Report Card). However, in 2013, the United States only invested 12.8 billion dollars in bridge reconstruction and repair (American Infrastructure Report Card). Also, our countries transit