Don't Forget How Important the New Bridge Is
Every week Trump Holds Up the Gordie Howe Costs Us Millions
Lily Tomlin used to say, “No matter how cynical you get, you can’t keep up.” That’s still true, but the bigger problem today is keeping up with Donald Trump’s atrocities. Less than a month ago, he suddenly announced he would not permit the new Gordie Howe International Bridge to open “until the United States is fully compensated for everything we’ve given them (Canada.)”
Trump is the biggest liar the presidency has ever seen, but this was a particularly obscene falsehood. The truth, of course, is exactly the opposite. WE owe Canada. Thanks to the Moroun family’s perpetual bribing (aka ‘campaign contributions’) of Michigan legislators, Michigan held up this much-needed bridge for years, and we’ve still refused to pay a cent towards its cost. CANADA has paid the entire $4.7 billion it cost to build this wonderful bridge, an engineering marvel that will take trucks right from I-75 to Canada’s Highway 401, and vice-versa.
Supposedly Canada will be reimbursed from Michigan’s share of the toll revenues, something that would take years, if not decades before our northern neighbor is fully compensated, if that indeed ever happens.
The bridge is completely finished now, except for the customs plaza, which our federal government needs to build. But Trump is refusing to do so. The real reason is that the Moroun family has contributed at least $1 million to Trump’s coffers.
The Anderson Economic Group of East Lansing, which tends to support conservative and Republican causes, calculates that every week the Gordie Howe remains closed costs taxpayers and the bridge authority an estimated $7 million, plus undetermined extra costs to business and industry for having to use the ancient, obsolete and inconveniently located Ambassador Bridge.
For this atrocity alone, Trump deserves impeachment, removal, and probably prison. But he is defended by an irrational and cynical cult that once was the Republican Party, and which still improperly uses that name. By the way, Mike Rogers, who was once a respected congressman but who has devolved into little more than a Trump lickspittle, supports (of course) the president on this.
Rogers, who moved back from Florida to run for the U.S. Senate (and lose) two years ago, is trying again this year, also got money from the Morouns, but in his case, a mere $21,400 or so. It is always remarkable to me how small a price some people put on their souls.