Originally Posted by Coluber42

Infrastructure maintenance isn't exciting or sexy, and it has no major interest groups or lobbyists except maybe construction unions. No one puts on big demonstrations, marches, ice bucket challenges, walk-a-thon's, etc, for shoring up retaining walls and inspecting overpasses. No congressional representative gets on television for saying they're going to raise taxes to fund a round of road construction or bridge safety evaluations or buy new snow removal equipment that will be needed only every 5 years (but needed desperately then). It's just one of those things that goes to pot slowly enough that you kinda don't notice, until a disaster happens and everyone wrings their hands and acts shocked that we could have let it happen.