Congress proves itself unable to cut back on pork

[highplainsdem]

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/12955796.htm


Posted on Thu, Oct. 20, 2005

Congress proves itself unable to cut back on pork

BY JAMES KUHNHENN

Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, vowed Thursday to resign from the Senate if his fellow lawmakers followed through on threats to cancel spending on a $230 million "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska that was stuck into a pork-filled highway bill earlier this year.

The bridge, longer than the Golden Gate, would cross from Ketchikan (pop. 8,000) to Gravina Island (pop. 50), replacing a seven-minute ferry that connects the town with the regional airport. Its main critic, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., argued that the bridge money is enough to buy each island resident a Lear jet.

The bridge, and Stevens' success in preserving it, illustrates a trend in Congress, where lawmakers lard spending bills with pet projects worth tens of millions of dollars.

Many of them are obscure, such as $1 million to research household plants in Utah's desert climates. Many are popular with lawmakers' constituents, such as $500,000 for an Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle or a museum parking lot in Omaha, Neb.


<snip>

This is a long article about different pork-barrel projects that Congress has been unable to cut.

[acmavm]

1. Except in healthcare for the poor and the aged, farmers getting less

free money (which is fine with me), you know the things that don't matter.

Thank goodness they had the courage and smarts to make sure that the rich still got theirs. It is so much easier to kill a poor person than it is to take a dime out of a rich man's pocket. And you get in a lot more trouble if you try.

[ochazuke]

2. our government is broken

addicted to more and more and more

we need an intervention

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Mmmmm, wouldn't one made from

popsicle sticks do it for him?? I mean, think of the trees that would need cut down.... that should provide some sort of satisfaction...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.bcee.concordia.ca/BCE/What_is_Civil.htm&h=276&w=427&sz=20&tbnid=gz4PeO_fHfUJ:&tbnh=78&tbnw=122&hl=en&start=9&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbridge%2Bpopsicle%2Bsticks%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

Crushing a bridge made of popsicle sticks, white glue, and dental floss during the annual Concordia University Bridge Building Competition

[abbeyco]

4. I'd have asked him to follow through

and let him resign the Senate. I'll bet his sorry ass would have back-peddled faster than Shrub drinks a shot of Jack Daniels.

Again, I hope this kind of thing gets out - how does one go about doing a media blast on something like this?

[ClassWarrior]

7. I believe the activism forum has the five-star resource thread...

...with a ton of media addresses.

NGU.

[madrchsod]

5. fat denny gave my town 2.5 million

from the road fund to build a river walk..the mayor called him up to see if we were actually getting the money-yup denny said no problem the money is on the way!

[ClassWarrior]

6. Please, oh please, oh please make Ted Stevens resign...

Or at least call his bluff.

NGU.