Pork for the Road
Published May 18, 2005
There's enough pork in the Senate's highway bill to earn it a Presidential veto.
President Bush threatened to kill the bill if it went over the amount the House approved. The Senate version tops that by $11 billion.
There's enough pork barrel spending alone — $12 billion — to put the Senate's $295 billion plan over the top. It includes 4,000 projects that Senators swear up and down their states need. Critics claim they're just pet projects designed to scratch special intersts backs and win votes back home.
Watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense says the Senate bill "contains a mind-boggling array of tax cuts for alcohol producers, limousines, and gun manufacturers." A fun night on the town, no doubt, but hardly in keeping with the mission of a highway bill.
The bill also won Sen Charles Grassley (R-IA) "Porker of the Month" honors from Citizens Against Government Waste. They cite key projects for Sen Grassley's home state he was able to add as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. From the CAGW website:
- $4 million to construct the Principal Riverwalk in Des Moines
- $2 million for transportation enhancements to access Lake Belva Deer in Sigourney
- $1 million for construction of the 100th Street Interchange on 135-80 in Urbandale
- $1 million (over three years) for the purchase of 40-foot buses in Des Moines
But people who back the spending say any highway project will pay off. Sen James Jeffords (I-VT) says stretches of bad roads account for a third of the 42,000 highway deaths in the US every year.
[Crossposted at Watching Washington]
- Pork for the Road
- Published: May 18, 2005
- Type: News
- Section: Politics
- Writer: Terry Turner
- Terry Turner's BC Writer page
- Terry Turner's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Remember that great line from Dave, where Kevin Kline says, "I don't want to tell some eight-year-old kid he's gotta sleep in the street because we want people to feel better about their car."
I'm sure there are thousands of deaths to be prevented by building the Principal Riverwalk - those joggers and baby carriages are just so-o dangerous.
[/end sarcasm]
this is VERY important stuff here, gentle Readers..
part and parcel of why we went from a budgetary surplus to record defecits WITHOUT counting the costs of either military conflict in Afghanistan or Iraq...
so where are the shouts of the so-called "conservatives" now?
where is the outcry and indignation of the "small government" crowd?
hell, i'd settle for some good old fashioned William Proxmire rants...
but the yells and the rants and thier supposed "Ethics of Principle" can't seem to find a Voice when their snouts are buried neck deep in the public trough...
mebbe they should switch logos from an elephant to a nice pudgy piggy...
your mileage may vary..
Excelsior!
If Bush does not veto this pork-laden bill, after directly thratening to do so, then he will lose a lot of credibility.
On the other hand, if he DOES veto this bill, he will give the MSM and the Dems endless weeks of political fodder, claiming the Republicans are divided and out of control.
It will be interesting to see what happens here...
Stop complaining about a measly $12 billion in pork for the whole country. 4,000 projects is a lot. And poor Grassley is only asking for 8 million. Hopefully, gone are the days when someone like Tip O'Neill could stiff the American taxpayer out of about $15 Billion for one tunnel that is still weeping like a wet willow.
There's not just pork that needs to be cut in this bill. This bill also foists off all sorts of new toll road projects on the public, and most importantly lifts the federal restriction on charging tolls on already existing interstate highways. This change could literally result in every major highway in the US becoming a toll road. Doesn't that sound like fun?
Dave
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I'm not sure this president knows how to veto.