Memo to White House: Bridge Failure Determined to Strike in U.S.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday proposed deep cuts to federal healthcare, education, and transportation programs, searching for new money in the federal budget to pay for increasingly costly defense programs and the war in Iraq.

-- Boston Globe, Feb. 6, 2007.

WASHINGTON - The White House said Thursday that an inspection two years ago found structural deficiencies in the highway bridge that buckled during evening rush hour in Minneapolis.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Interstate 35W span rated 50 on a scale of 120 for structural stability.

"This doesn't mean there was a risk of failure, but if an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions," he said. The bridge was 40 years old.

-- Aug. 2, 2007.

A 2005 federal study found that the bridge was "structurally deficient."

"A structurally deficient bridge might be one not adequate for the traffic it takes, but not necessarily dangerous," Burnett said. "But a lot of structurally deficient bridges are dangerous."

Burnett said he believed it would be the state's responsibility to check on the bridge in light of those reports. But he conceded that there could be a federal role and an issue of whether fed standards are adequate.

-- Scripps News, Aug. 2, 2007.

That would be Jim Burnett, former chairman of the National Transporatation Safety Board, who -- in what some might find as an irony -- happened to be in Minneapolis for a meeting of the Republican National Committee.

The story today is an awful tragedy -- my heart goes out to the people of Minneapolis. But the story in the days ahead will be the spending priorities of two "cost-cutters," Bush (who didn't cut costs, but is in the process of shifting $1 billion to Iraq) and Minneapolis Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Hopefully there will be some lessons learned here.