Pork Barrel Spending

Here’s another example where we Americans have our heads buried in the sand and are being led like cattle to their proverbial slaughter without uttering one moo. This summer congress passed a $286 billion pork-laden highway bill. Lawmakers took advantage of the bill at the tune of 6,000 pet projects targeted for their districts which totaled $24 billion.

I thought the highway bill was to allocate money for the cost of maintaining the nation's highways and bridges in the coming years not to siphon off money for parking lots, bus depots, bike paths and whatever else our congressmen could think of. One noted pet project has been named “The Bridge to Nowhere.” This pet project was championed by Senator Stevens (R) from Alaska. He was able to go into the pork barrel and take out $223 million to build a bridge that would link tiny Ketchikan, with a population of 8,900, with its airport on Gravina Island -- population 50. $223 million to take care of a small amount of his constituents who currently take a ferry that takes 7 minutes to get them back and forth. When this was first reported people thought it was a joke. It’s not a joke.

Where’s the outrage! I thought Republicans were fiscally conservative, but they are proving to me that they’re all a bunch of crooks. $24 billion, used like play money, wasted on pet projects while they now contemplate making cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, farm subsidies and student loans. Why couldn’t part of this $24 billion have been used to rebuild the Interstate 10 Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans, a major transportation corridor that was shattered during the Katrina storm surge?

I shouldn’t have labeled all congressmen as fiscally irresponsible, because there are people such as McCain and six other Senate Republicans who want to reallocate the pork dollars in the bill to help pay for the damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of eight House members who opposed the legislation, and who declined any special projects for his district, wants to rescind 10 percent of the bill's total cost and allow states to disregard the pet projects authorized by the legislation, and spend the money as they wish.

Where’s our president? Why did he sign this bill? President Ronald Reagan once vetoed a highway bill because it contained 152 pet projects. Despite the pork inflation, Bush had no complaints about the current package when he signed it on Aug. 10. "This bill upgrades our transportation infrastructure," he declared. "And it accomplishes goals in a fiscally responsible way."

I guess we in Massachusetts can’t throw stones. We’ve set the record with the greatest cash cow of them all the Big Dig. The Bridge to Nowhere is a just a ripple in the pond in comparison.