I-95 proves that the government cannot provide services that don't suck

We drove back from the holiday weekend on I-95 yesterday.  I know, I know.  What should have been a six and a half hour trip was thirteen and a half.

I-95 is instructive.  It is the main Federal highway for the most populous portion of the Republic, running through the "Northeast Corridor" between Boston and Washington, D.C.  With over 50 Million residents it's the only significant chuck of the USA that approaches European population density (17% of population in 2% of the land surface).

Fortunately, I didn't drive the portion shown.  I drove the Southern portion, from Columbia SC north to Frederick MD.  This is the portion that is illustrative of why government simply cannot deliver services that don't suck.

For those readers who blessedly have not had to drive I-95, it is a national disgrace.  It has been congested for as long as I can recall (over 30 years of personal experience with the stretch shown, and what we drove yesterday).  It has been congested in exactly the same locations for those 30 years.

The same exact locations.  30 years.  Offered for your consideration, the 20 miles on each side of Fredericksburg, VA.  It was a parking lot in the 1980s; it was a parking lot yesterday.  The reason then was that the highway lost a lane (more lanes in Richmond to the south and Washington to the north).  The reason now is the same.

So riddle me this, Big Government Man: how in 30 years is it not possible to widen 40 miles of Interstate to remove what everybody in the Northeast Corridor knows is a notorious choke point?  And please don't be so dim and predictable as to say "there isn't enough funding" - we spent a cool trillion dollars on a "stimulus" that the President swore would be "shovel ready" projects.  You don't get more shovel-ready than widening I-95.

So we see that it's not possible for the government to provide services that don't suck.  Even a trillion dollars can't fix this.  Now multiply by all the myriad things that the government thinks are (or should be) its purview, and the result is inevitable: more crummy public services.  I mean, everyone at the Department of Transportation knows that Fredericksburg is a nightmare - they all drive it.  And they can't get it fixed, even with a trillion unbudgeted dollars.  And this is only one 40 mile stretch of a single highway.

And yet we have an entire political party running for office on a platform that the government should be responsible for even more of the economy, and of our lives.  They promise even more "services".  I'd be more impressed if they'd fix I-95.  Granted, that's a very low bar, but they can't even seem to do that.