November 16, 2005

Bridge to Nowhere

One small step for fiscal responsibility....sort of (via Instapundit)...

CNBC’s Squawk Box is reporting that the “Bridget to Nowhere” has been officially defunded. However, this can only be seen as a small victory. The millions of dollars allocated for this pork project will go to the Alaska state government for them to spend as they see fit…instead of the money going to the Katrina relief effort…or, heaven forbid, back to federal taxpayers.

As Sen. Lamar Alexander stated (in defense of being a porker), the money that is set aside for state's highway spending actually came from that state's federal gas tax proceeds. This, in the eyes of Congress means that no matter how wasteful the project, that money will go back to that state.

Of course, this brings up another issue. Why is so much money going to Washington when it could just as easily stay within the state for that state's own highway spending? The whole process is wasteful in of itself.

Here's how it works (according to Sen. Alexander): The federal government has to collect the money, get it to Washington, pipe it through a huge bureaucracy, reallocate it on projects that the state may not need, force the state to spend their own money to match that money (or lose the Federal money), then a Senator or Congressperson can sit back and pat themselves on the back in front of the voters for doing such a great service for their state.

But hey...at least Alaska won't be spending it on a wasteful bridge now. Let's just hope they don't use it to paint more planes to look like big salmon.

Comments:

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the same thing happens with education money.

And you know that when you get the money back from the federal goverment, you are going to have less than you started with. Everyone is going to get their cut.

Posted by: cube at November 16, 2005 07:36 PM

Unfortunately, the bridge to nowhere may still be built. The un-earmarked money that will be sent back to Alaska for roads can apparently be re-earmarked by the Governor for the same bridge, IF he is willing to take the heat.

Posted by: Steve Gill at November 16, 2005 08:44 PM

That's very true. Since the money can be used for whatever the state wants now, they may just go ahead and build it anyway.

Posted by: Blake at November 16, 2005 09:00 PM