you get what you pay for

Much of Montgomery County, Maryland's wealthiest county, was without water after a pipe ruptured. So a bunch of businesses and schools had to close and people have to boil their water for the next few days.

The problem, as a former water official said just in February, is simple. Not enough money.

This isn't as dramatic as the failure of the levees in New Orleans or the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis. As far as I can tell, nobody has died in Maryland from this disruption in clean water supplies.

But like the fatal failures in Louisiana and Minnesota, this points up a simple fact - our infrastructure is deteriorating.

Why? It needs money for maintenance.

Why no money? Well it's been nearly 30 years since the Reagan Revolution and the rise of the government-hating elements of the Republican Party, so offended by taxes and public spending that they do whatever they can to reduce it AND not coincidentally, prove themselves to be incompetent (on purpose?) in running it.

And the results include worse schools, more crowded emergency rooms in public hospitals, and ruptured pipes, breached levees, and collapsed bridges.

Republican America. Isn't it time it ended?