Democratic areas win more transportation grants

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just two months before next week's midterm elections, the Obama administration in September awarded the biggest share of almost $600 million in economic stimulus-based transportation grants to projects in districts with a Democratic congressman even though Republicans represent 34 more House districts across the country, an Associated Press analysis has found.

Applicants from Democratic-held districts won 48 percent of the so-called TIGER grants for road, bridge and rapid transit projects, rail line repairs and port upgrades. Just 33 percent of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants were awarded to GOP-held districts. The rest went to projects that cross district lines.

Republicans claim GOP-represented areas have been shortchanged every year since the TIGER grants were established in 2009 as a small part of President Barack Obama's $840 billion stimulus package to help bring the U.S. economy out of a recession. Many of the projects are familiar to motorists because of roadside signs proclaiming them as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Democrats argue that more grants naturally go toward the pressing infrastructure needs of urban areas, where they continue to outnumber Republicans. But the pattern is nonetheless irksome for Republicans, who represent 54 percent of House districts nationwide.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this March 5, 2013 file photo, the north span of the new Memorial Bridge connecting New{a0}Hampshire and Maine passes under the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge on a barge, in Portsmouth, N.H. The span was floated with the tide and currents to its new spot in Kittery, Maine after midnight. Just two months before next week{2019}s midterm election, the Obama administration awarded the biggest share of almost $600 million in economic stimulus-based transportation grants to projects in districts with a Democratic congressman even though Republicans represent 34 more House districts across the country, according to a grant-by-grant? analysis by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141030/us--transportation_grants-23976e63ec.html

[blm]

1. BS - American cities were shortchanged for YEARS - the infrastructure projects

were/are still necessary. The red states and their incessant whining always gets far more tax dollars than blue states.

[Sparhawk60]

2. Urban Areas Win More Grants

Better headline would be 'Urban areas win more transportation grants". Urban areas tend to be blue, and by definition, they have a high population density. You put your infrastructure where the people are, and the people are in blue areas.

On a side note, Republican areas get more farm subsidies than Democratic ones. I wonder if it is because Reb areas tend to be more rural?????

[mopinko]

3. how about a little compare and contrast, with, say, the farm bill.

yes fools. some types of aid go to urban areas, some goes to rural areas.
red state districts tend to have more cows than people. so what.