The American Society of Civil Engineers recently graded all the major components of our nation’s infrastructure and the results ought to alarm everyone in this country, regardless of political affiliation of philosophy, because every single one of us uses these components.

The best grade any of them earned was a C-plus, and that was for solid waste management. Bridges, so important to all of us, were rated worthy of a C. There were no As or Bs.

The following critical parts of our infrastructure earned only a D: aviation, dams, hazardous waste, schools and transit. Even so, that’s better than the D-minus ratings for drinking water, inland waterways, levees, roads and wastewater. Rail and public parks were rated C-minus.

So, add it all together: What we have is a crumbling infrastructure desperately in need of attention, an alarmingly high unemployment rate that is helping to undermine other parts of our economy (particularly housing), and a need for bold steps to save the nation from further financial deterioration at a time when we’re still fighting an expensive and prolonged war in Afghanistan and are still engaged, if at a somewhat lower level, in Iraq.

In his Labor Day speech in Milwaukee yesterday, President Barack Obama called for long-term investments in the nation’s troubled infrastructure at a cost of at least $50 billion. That sounds like a lot of money, but it’s just a fraction of what the ASCE estimated it would cost to bring our nation’s infrastructure up to a satisfactory level -- $2.2 trillion. In other words, even if the president can persuade Congress to enact the requisite legislation, and in an election year that’s a long shot at best, it will be only a partial solution.

And yet it is precisely because this is an election year that the president has embraced the proposed infrastructure investments, which have been described as just one part of a package of proposals the White House is expected to announce as a way to jump-starting the economy.

Americans recognize that the economy is the biggest problem facing our nation today. Some may argue, correctly, that our economic woes were caused by the previous administration, but this president has been in office for almost two years and the public needs him to overcome whatever economic problems he inherited.

Obama’s proposal calls for investments over six years, with the spending front-loaded with an initial $50 billion to help create jobs in the near future. Those jobs would help rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, construct and maintain 4,000 miles of railways and rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of airport runways. Also included would be a new air navigation system designed to reduce travel times and delays.

The ASCE offers this advice: “We must develop and authorize innovative financing programs that not only make resources readily available, but also encourage the most effective and efficient use of those resources. Federal investment must be used to complement, encourage and leverage investment from the state and local government levels as well as from the private sector. In addition, users of the infrastructure must be willing to pay the appropriate price for their use.”

The engineers’ advice may be right on target – in fact, we suspect it is – but elected officials listen not just to the experts but also to the voters, and voters also listen to those who disagree with the president, if only for short-term political gain. Obama may be on the right track. But the question remains, will our political infrastructure assist, or derail this badly needed effort?