SieSie
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2003
- Messages
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DH and I had a friend over last night and I was shocked to hear him tell us that the government passed a bill and an island in Alaska with a population of about 50 people will get a $220 million bridge. I didn't believe him, I really didn't. Just got done doing some searching and found the following information.
You're telling me my tax dollars are going to enourage youngsters to golf, for potato storage research, and for Cowgirl Hall of Fame museums??? I'm shocked, I really am. I know I've always been very naive when it comes to politics, but I just really had no idea... $273,000 to one city to try to learn how to understand the Goth culture better?!?! Are they serious?!?!?!?!
This topic makes me very angry - why wasn't more money appropriated to Louisianna years ago to strengthen the levees? It's more important to give 50+ people in Alaska a $200 million dollar bridge than it is to give that $200 million to the Gulf Coast to help in disaster prevention and relief??
Surely we can take some of the money from this SAFETEA-LU bill that seems to be wasteful in light of this disaster, and put it towards fixing the levee system, re-building the cities that are decimated, and providing long-term relief to those affected and left homeless.
Don't forget there was $12 million dollars approved in 1999 to STUDY the levee in NO that wasn't even scheduled to begin until 2006 - so there's another $12 million we can add to the recovery and relief efforts, right?!?!
ETA quote and link regarding the $12 million study:
Congress has passed SAFETEA-LU - that's short for a mouthful: Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act-Legacy for Users.
$286.4 billion spending plan for the nation's roads, bridges and transit through 2008.
More at link - Post-Gazette.com
Alaska's Gravina Island is home to 50 people and more than 350 Sitka black-tailed deer. Under the U.S. highway bill passed last month, this group will get a $223 million bridge taller than the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
More at link Bloomberg.com
A second Bridge to Nowhere will connect Gravina Island (population: 50) with the Alaskan mainland. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) secured $220 million for this boondoggle. The cost of building the 5.9 mile bridge would be enough to buy every island resident a Lear jet.
More at link Citizens Against Government Waste
2003
$273,000 grant to help the city of Blue Springs, Missouri, understand Goth culture better
$90,000 for the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum in Fort Worth, Texas
2004
$3,000,000 for the First Tee Program in Florida, which encourages young people to learn golf
$240,000 for potato storage research in Madison, Wisconsin
$200,000 for recreation in North Pole, Alaska
More at link 3 pages - timesonline.co.uk
You're telling me my tax dollars are going to enourage youngsters to golf, for potato storage research, and for Cowgirl Hall of Fame museums??? I'm shocked, I really am. I know I've always been very naive when it comes to politics, but I just really had no idea... $273,000 to one city to try to learn how to understand the Goth culture better?!?! Are they serious?!?!?!?!
As was widely reported following the passage of SAFETEA-LU, the bill contained more than 6,000 earmarks. Many of these became objects of national ridicule, thanks to the national media, and rightly so because they had little to do with building necessary transportation infrastructure. But today, in the face of Katrinas vast destruction, these earmarks are no laughing matter when their funding could be redirected to begin to rebuild the infrastructure of the Gulf States. As Congress considers the vast suffering in Louisiana, is it possible that Richmond, Indiana, could give up its $3 million dollar hiking trail? Could Newark, New Jersey pass on its $2 million earmark for Waterfront Pedestrian and Bicycle Access? And can Hoboken, New Jersey, do likewise with the $8 million planned for its Waterfront Walkway? What about the $3 million that Modesto, California, expects to get for its Rails to Trails program, the $5 million Bridgeport, Connecticut, grabbed for an Intermodal Transportation facility, the $5 million Delaware will get to improve the Auto Tour Route at the Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge, and the $6.5 million that state will receive for the Wilmington Train Station Restoration? In the face of genuine need, dont these expensive projects seem comparatively frivolous?
The earmarks go on and on like this, page after page in SAFETEA-LU. The more than 6,000 earmarks in it add up to nearly $25 billion in money that could now be better used for a more urgent purpose than flower gardens, replica sailing ships, and bus museums. Members of Congress may want these projects, but Katrinas victims need the funding more.
More at link - Heritage.org
This topic makes me very angry - why wasn't more money appropriated to Louisianna years ago to strengthen the levees? It's more important to give 50+ people in Alaska a $200 million dollar bridge than it is to give that $200 million to the Gulf Coast to help in disaster prevention and relief??
Surely we can take some of the money from this SAFETEA-LU bill that seems to be wasteful in light of this disaster, and put it towards fixing the levee system, re-building the cities that are decimated, and providing long-term relief to those affected and left homeless.
Don't forget there was $12 million dollars approved in 1999 to STUDY the levee in NO that wasn't even scheduled to begin until 2006 - so there's another $12 million we can add to the recovery and relief efforts, right?!?!
ETA quote and link regarding the $12 million study:
The levees that protected the city from the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain were partially redesigned and rebuilt to withstand a Force 3 hurricane. The ten-year project to build them up to that level was launched in 1965, but is still incomplete after 40 years. The portion of the levee that collapsed, however, was one that had been completed. The city and state governments took a continuing gamble since the 1960s that no stronger storm would happen to strike New Orleans. Eventually, the city was bound to lose; it was only a matter of time. Some critics would like to blame the disaster on the recent reduction of federal funds to the Army Corps of Engineers, but funds have been declining for nearly a decade. According to the Chicago Tribune, Congress in 1999 authorized the corps to conduct a $12 million study to determine how much it would cost to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane, but the study isnt scheduled to get under way until 2006.
More at link - chronwatch.com