Extreme partisanship, which took hold long before Trump took control of the G.O.P., is part of the answer. It was clear through most of the Obama years that Republicans wanted to prevent good things from happening on a Democratic president’s watch. Under Obama, G.O.P. legislators squeezed federal spending after they took control of the House, supposedly because they were worried about government debt, only to open up the taps once Trump took office.
There was also an element of reflexive opposition to government spending in general, no matter how obvious the need. Mitch McConnell, as Senate majority leader, didn’t do much to oppose Trump — but he did put the brakes on infrastructure spending.
Why isn’t the ship’s insurer paying for the bridge repair?
When insurers need to make a really big payout, they generally prefer to spend years litigating over how much, instead of making the payment.
It’s important to actually rebuild the bridge right away, which means that the public needs to front the money for it.
Makes sense. Does the state still go after the insurer?
Both the bridge’s insurer, and the ship owner’s insurance, and the group of P&I clubs, and the reinsurance companies backing them
They should. But also the feds should front the cost and crack down on the insurer. Baltimore is an important port city. It benefits the whole of the nation that this is done as quickly as reasonably possible and bridges aren’t cheap or quick to build. Federal emergency money is for things like this
The company that owns the ship has filed in federal court to limit their liability under a maritime law from 1851. If successful, they will only need to pay out about $43 million rather than the $100s of millions it would take to rebuild the bridge and compensate the other victims including the families of the dead. In any case, a ruling in this will no doubt take years to reach.
Because in America we don’t hold corporations accountable if we could force taxpayers to shoulder the burden instead.