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The CT Post has just provided another update on the saga of the Congress Street bridge rebuild in Bridgeport – and it’s the most pitiful and illustrative indictment of the bureaucracies which deign to control our lives, that we’re likely to see all year. (See CT Post - Bridge.)
The bridge was stuck open for over a decade when newly-minted congressman Himes famously got involved in early 2010, promising whatever officials promise to help get things moving (see above).
A dozen years later in ‘22, and Himes, in a heated re-election bid, did another on-site presser, and all that changed was the vertically stuck roadways were removed and the approach ramp was grassed over into a makeshift park. He again promised “shovels will be in the ground in six months.” THAT never happened.
But in July ’23, Jim Himes in one of his favorite go-to gambits, laid the blame on others – the Democrat city hall and Mayor Joe Ganim, with this: “I’m sitting here wondering if they’re going to start construction in June of 2024, 2025? It’s enormously frustrating. It’s gotten to the point of embarrassment, right? I ran on this 15 years ago. And this is not a big bridge.” A Democrat congressman and a Democrat-run city administration, ostensibly on the same team, are simply helpless to get the wheels of their cherished bureaucracies to turn for the benefit of the citizenry.
Fast forward to today, a week after a lightning-quick repair following the fiery crash on I-95 in Norwalk, and the spotlight again returns to shine on the long-abandoned bridge in the city of Bridgeport! A new bridge in Norwalk is promised within a year. But in Bridgeport, the citizens are treated to an astounding litany of bureaucratic excuses, which serve as an indictment of a Democrat government overrun and completely paralyzed by its own agencies.
Local frustration has boiled over such that the City Council President, and two City Councilmen have publicly roasted the City of Bridgeport, the CT Dept. of Transportation, and the U.S Dept. of Transportation. And each of these seemingly calcified agencies for years, have been operated by presumably ‘friendly’ Administrations of their own party!
The article’s re-telling of the saga of infighting between these over-authorized, over- regulating, self-interested, counter-productive bureaucracies is a thorough indictment of the big-government-knows-best model. Nothing of consequence on the public building front can be accomplished anymore, unless it gets the national media spotlight like the Francis Scott Key bridge, or the shutdown of I-95 in the heart of the northeast corridor.
Over the past 15 years Mr. Himes has voted for $24 trillion of new federal debt, about $198,000 per household in our district. That includes the $1.2 trillion so-called “Infrastructure” bill of 2021. But he flails around in interviews reiterating the excuses fed to him by his own bureaucrats. He has demonstrated absolutely NO leadership on this, or any issue impacting the lives of his constituents. He has spent his time advancing his career by maneuvering power-plays in Washington instead.
Jim Himes is always cruising around this District doing pressers, sprinkling a few bucks here and there, in even-numbered election years. But NEVER anything of consequence, like a bridge uniting two sides of the biggest city in the state. Connecticut’s five congressmen and two senators, all Democrats, rank dead-last in the nation, in obtaining Federal investment in the state – merely 75-cents comes back for every dollar sent to Washington. And bringing home the Federal bacon is supposed to be a Democrat calling-card!
Yes, the citizens of Connecticut have become an afterthought to these people. This country didn’t get built taking orders from bureaucrats – the Greatest Generation wouldn’t stand for it. The government-knows-best ideology Mr. Himes adheres to, has built the biggest government bureaucracy in the history of man. It has now quite obviously come to the point where it is strangling and bankrupting the communities it claims to be serving. We need a congressman focused on actually REPRESENTING the interests of the citizenry, rather than explaining Washington’s interests back to us. Enough with the word-salad Mr. Himes. Help is on the way this November.
Part 1
As Bridgeport once again finds itself used, abused and ignored by the Democrat Party and Congressman Jim Himes, one has to wonder if Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is on to something most of the Connecticut media besides the Centinal seems intent on NOT examining.
Part 2
In Nov 2021, Fox News reported that:
“Buttigieg was asked to respond to critics who don’t believe his argument that some bridges and highways were built with racist intentions.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/buttigieg-racist-roads-comment-america-guilty
Part 3
Does Jim Himes believe Buttigieg's argument regarding the intersection of racism and transportation issues is true? If he does, then it must follow that if some bridges and highways ARE being built with racist intentions, then some… like the one in Bridgeport… are also NOT being built because of racist intentions.
Part 4
Himes has ignored the Bridgeport Congress St. Bridge issue for years, only addressing it every election cycle when his opponents point out his lack of interest in the well-being of his constituents. Apparently, Himes thinks that Bridgeport is so solidly behind him that he can just tap dance past his lack of service to the community with empty rhetoric and false promises.
Part 5
Can Himes have such a lock on the vote of heavily minority populated Bridgeport that he can AGAIN ignore their needs with arrogant impunity? Have his easy victories in Bridgeport led him to believe that all he has to do is show up, strike his empathetic "moderate" pose - which is as well practiced as it is FALSE - make some extravagant, never delivered-on promises, and then automatically collect Black and Hispanic votes?
Part 6
How long will the people of Bridgeport fall for the lies of the uncaring Congressman Himes who, being the tethered creature of Washington DC that he is, thinks his job is to represent the interests of the Washington elites that control him to the people of Connecticut rather than the other way around?
Part 7
Is having their congressional representative actually getting something tangible accomplished for Bridgeport voters, like the Congress St. Bridge, a bridge too far for Jim Himes?
Hopefully, Republican candidate for Congress Bob MacGuffie will shame Himes into FINALLY serving his constituents in Bridgeport… instead of contemptuously treating them as if he owns both them and their vote.