I know that Mitch wasn't responsible for NAFTA. That was a bipartisan turkey that goes back a ways and carries plenty of blame for both parties.
I agree that Mitch inherited the I-69 project. I notice he didn't kick it to the back of the closet, though. He seems to have fought for it every bit as hard as the former administration, maybe harder.
He does so many things in a business-like manner and cuts through so much BS, and I do appreciate that part of his record. I also think I'd like the guy if he lived down the block or worked in the same department. But some of the ideas he has pushed just don't ring true no matter how much slack I try to give them.
If we can make the other departments of the state government work like a business and be cost-effective, then why not keep the toll road and improve the efficiency by implementing the same measures that the foreign company will be using, and charging the users the same fees that they'll be charging? That company will be making a profit while paying the state that money, why couldn't the state make that profit with the same rates and business methods? It just doesn't add up to our benefit unless you accept that the state is incapable of running a business, but then what is Mitch doing in all those other areas where he turned things around?
Then there's the time thing. I remember when I was a kid and we had DST. Took Dad about five minutes to reset the clock on the mantle, the one on the kitchen wall, and the watch on his arm. Now I have the digital watch, the computers, the digital clocks in two rooms and three vehicles, two VCR's, the answering machine...and I don't have time-controlled thermostats or a coffeemaker that comes on automatically. When I get all done, there's still the same number of hours of daylight as there was the week before, but the kids are waiting for their bus in the dark again, the fast-food joints are closing before I can stop for a bite to eat after a day of doing anything outside until dark, and it takes a week for everyone to get their body clocks re-adjusted from the artificial jet lag effect of a shift in their routine. Might be worth it if we actually gained an hour, but not if we just saw it off one end of the day and nail it to the other.
I understand it was good for business, though.....especially the golf course business. I have a hard time imagining much advantage to any other high-tech business dealing with other parts of the country and the world. The ones in Arizona seem to be dealing with their lack of Playlike Time just fine. I guess they must be smarter than Indiana businessmen. Hmmm...
As for bringing the economic benefits of life near an interstate to the poor hillbillies out in Hoosier sticks......I know a lot of people who live near me that used to live in the big city. They moverd here because they wanted to live further from the smoke and the traffic and the crime and the high taxes and the other "benefits" of economic development. And I didn't settle here because I couldn't FIND Indianapolis.....I'd been there to visit, and wanted to live here also.
Another thing about all that economic advantage....check the figures to find the poorest county in the state, with the lowest rate of individual income. You'll find it has an interstate running squarely through the middle of it and has had for quite a number of years. If you think that's a statistical fluke of some kind, check out the next ten poorest and see how many have interstates running through a significant portion of them. They used the fact that the highest economic activity areas in the state were in the counties with the most interstate mileage, and that's true as far as it goes, but they neglected to mention that those areas were the business and manufacturing centers back before there were any interstates, too.
Everyone wants a Manhattan income with a Mayberry lifestyle. Doesn't happen that way. The dollars are fewer and further between out in Green Acres country, but there's compensation in other forms, like knowing your neighbors and half the folks in town, and being able to go out to the best restaurant in the county for about twice what a stop at a burger joint costs, and you don't need to pay for valet parking. And Floyd will cut your hair down at the barber shop for WAY less than the $400 some folks pay back east.
As many have pointed out, we all do owe him for the help on second amendment issues. That's no joke and no sarcasm, and I agree completely. I'll probably vote for him again based mostly on that.
But some of the pigs he's trying to sell us still aren't very pretty, even after all that lipstick he and his cohorts have slapped on them.
That may be what ticks me off the most....the way they just keep coming up with excuses for these projects that make very little sense, and selling it to us like a used car, expecting the rubes to swallow all that fertilizer like it was the truth. No worse than the stuff we've come to expect from the other politicians over the years, I guess, but no better, either.