It's Time to Shred the Highway Bill!!!
Although it seems like an eternity, it was just a few weeks ago that Congress approved what they called a highway bill. Unfortunately for America, too much of this colossal bill ($2.4 billion) is earmarked to over 6000 “special projects” that are nothing more than rewards for White House favorites to brag about to their constituents.
Rolling Stone listed a few examples of this explicit pork:
$2 million to remove part of a highway so Donald Trump can erect a new building in New York.
$16 million earmarked by Rep. Nick Rahall for Nick J. Rahall II Appalachian Transportation Institute in West Virginia.
$37 million to expand an access road at Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters.
One billion goes to Alaska, the home state of the chairman of the committee that drafted the bill. That’s over fifteen hundred per person, and over $223 million of that goes to build a bridge that serves so few people that it would be “more economical to buy each of them his own personal Learjet”.
South Dakota also has it’s share of pork, including the much “acclaimed” forty million to move Sioux Falls railroad tracks so that our insipid Mayor can continue to dream about his legacy. Despite the fact that none of our sports teams need extra seats, and the downward trajectory of the music biz means that there’s absolutely no evidence that we’ll see additional concerts, Munson still has dreams of this silly events center.
Obviously, Congress had no idea what was about to happen in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and other Southern states. As frivolous as this sort of bill was, it certainly was business as usual pre-Katrina. However, now that we have seen the destruction, the dead bodies, and the rest of the devastation, it’s now time that our elected representatives stop thinking aobut themselves.
If Golden Boy Thune, or Johnson, or Herseth, or any other member of the House or Senate had any balls, they would call on the President to tear up that original Highway bill and start over. All non-essential elements of that bill need to be stripped away, and that saved money should be ear-marked for relief efforts. After all, we’d all hate to see the weather terrorists win.
Although it seems like an eternity, it was just a few weeks ago that Congress approved what they called a highway bill. Unfortunately for America, too much of this colossal bill ($2.4 billion) is earmarked to over 6000 “special projects” that are nothing more than rewards for White House favorites to brag about to their constituents.
Rolling Stone listed a few examples of this explicit pork:
$2 million to remove part of a highway so Donald Trump can erect a new building in New York.
$16 million earmarked by Rep. Nick Rahall for Nick J. Rahall II Appalachian Transportation Institute in West Virginia.
$37 million to expand an access road at Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters.
One billion goes to Alaska, the home state of the chairman of the committee that drafted the bill. That’s over fifteen hundred per person, and over $223 million of that goes to build a bridge that serves so few people that it would be “more economical to buy each of them his own personal Learjet”.
South Dakota also has it’s share of pork, including the much “acclaimed” forty million to move Sioux Falls railroad tracks so that our insipid Mayor can continue to dream about his legacy. Despite the fact that none of our sports teams need extra seats, and the downward trajectory of the music biz means that there’s absolutely no evidence that we’ll see additional concerts, Munson still has dreams of this silly events center.
Obviously, Congress had no idea what was about to happen in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and other Southern states. As frivolous as this sort of bill was, it certainly was business as usual pre-Katrina. However, now that we have seen the destruction, the dead bodies, and the rest of the devastation, it’s now time that our elected representatives stop thinking aobut themselves.
If Golden Boy Thune, or Johnson, or Herseth, or any other member of the House or Senate had any balls, they would call on the President to tear up that original Highway bill and start over. All non-essential elements of that bill need to be stripped away, and that saved money should be ear-marked for relief efforts. After all, we’d all hate to see the weather terrorists win.
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