Good heavens! From the WSJ Best of the Web column.
When it comes to motivational speaking, President Joe Biden is no Kirby Smart. But this week Mr. Biden is gamely trying to sell his latest 13-figure spending law at a series of events in various states.
The first stop on the tour was a New Hampshire bridge that crosses the Pemigewasset River in the Woodstock area. ...
Attendees at Tuesday’s event must have had a hard time figuring out whether Mr. Biden was promising, at long last, to fix the bridge. According to the official White House transcript the president lauded the Democratic members of Congress attending the event and said:
My message to the people of New Hampshire is simple. It’s this: Because of this delegation, New Hampshire and America are moving again. Your life is going to change for the better, and that’s literal. For example, the Pemi Bridge here you just — I just walked across — opened in 1939 — twenty- — excuse me, 82 years ago. This may not seem like a big bridge, but it saves lives and solves problems...
And folks, this is bridge [sic] that has been structurally deficient for years. I’m preaching to the choir here, I know. But the fact is: It used to be able to carry 40-ton trucks. Now the bridge is down to 20-ton restrictions.
In a couple of weeks, it’s going to be closed to put steel plates down over — excuse me — down and — over the weakened and — for sections of this deck.
That steel plate is basically like putting a Band-Aid on a major wound. This is going to make it bumpy for drivers, difficult for snow plows, and it’s still dangerous for bikers. And when that’s done, the bridge may need even more weight restrictions.
The state has already spent a quarter of a million dollars on “Band-Aid” repairs on this bridge alone.
And right now, there are 215 bridges in your state — 215 bridges deemed structurally unsafe in New Hampshire alone.
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