Posted on 08/18/2005 4:48:52 AM PDT by from occupied ga
Virginia Politicians and Highway Pork
by Jacob G. Hornberger, August 17, 2005
For a good example of the moral perversity of the budget-busting, pork-barrel highway bill, consider what recently happened in Bristol, Virginia. While on his annual statewide listening tour across the state, Republican Sen. George Allen proudly told Bristol voters that their local officials were going to receive even more money from Congress than they had requested for the renovation of the local train station.
Rep. Rick Boucher, a Democrat, had requested only $400,000 for the project. Not to be outdone, Sen. John Warner, a Republican, had requested $1 million for the same project.
So what did Congress do? It simply combined the two numbers and awarded Bristol officials a grant of $1.4 million. Laughing about the situation, Allen said, Congress works in mysterious ways. Ill guarantee they will use this extra $400,000.
Extra $400,000? Didnt Allen actually mean extra $1 million, given that Bouchers request implied that the project could be done for $400,000? Oh well, whats a million dollars to taxpayers who have trouble saving any money these days?
Unfortunately, this is how democracy works in America today, compliments of the U.S. Congress. Federal representatives return home to their constituents and proudly tell them, Look at the free federal money I have brought home to you. I represent you well. I fight for your interests. Be sure to remember what I have done for you when election day rolls around.
Yet isnt the entire process nothing more than a corrupt way to purchase votes in advance of an election? Rather than simply stuff cash into the hands of individual voters, which would be illegal, they stuff grants of cash into the hands of local public officials and ask their constituents to return them to office so that they can do more of the same.
Even worse, people are actually grateful for being serviced in this way. After all, dont forget that it is peoples very own money that is ultimately being used to fund projects. The money is withheld from people by their employers, compliments of Congress, and paid to the IRS, which then puts the money at the disposal of Congress, which then dispenses it to local government officials.
The grateful voters from Bristol then clap and happily say, Thank you, Mssrs. Boucher, Warner, and Allen for having the IRS take our hard-earned money and returning a portion of it to our local public officials to renovate our train station. We are so grateful for what you have done for us. Please do more of it in the future. You are so effective.
Or more likely, the voters simply convince themselves that the free federal money is actually coming out of the income and savings of their fellow citizens in other parts of the country. Ironically, people in other parts of the country are thinking the same thing when their representatives return and proudly make the same sort of announcements in their area. To paraphrase the 19th-century French free-market legislator Frédéric Bastiat, the federal highway bill provides a good example of how the federal government has become a fiction by which everyone is trying to live at the expense of everyone else.
This is what democracy in America is now all about. Everyone in Washington knows that there is no better way for a member of the U.S. House or Senate to ingratiate himself with voters than by announcing, Free federal pork for your community. Come and get it.
When will this moral perversity be brought to a halt? Only when the American people stop rewarding this corrupt practice with accolades, praise, and gratitude and instead greet political announcements of federal grants with the indignation, disdain, and condemnation they deserve.
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.
Republicans grabbing tax dollars with both hands - Democrats grabbing tax dollars with one hand. I've discovered a difference between Democrats and Republicans! Republicans spend more of our money.
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Perhaps if Hornberger, a supposedly educated writer, discovered that we were not created a democracy he would find out why he has helped to foment the problem by making us out to be what we are not.
We were formed a representative Republic. The media and the left has made us over into a "democracy". What he has described is exactly what happens in a democracy.
I have to give you credit for one of the more bizarre comments I've read in the last couple of days. How does Hornberger's elucidation of the problem i.e. he says
Unfortunately, this is how democracy works in America today, compliments of the U.S. Congress.help foment the problem? He's just labeling what we've become.
Actually, it's an extra $1.4M, since the federal government should not be in the business of renovating train stations anyway.
Yes - I kind of thought that too. Makes me happy that my tax dollars are going to renovate a train station in VA. (At least it's no a train station in NY or NJ)
It's a good thing the Adults are finally in charge. Blackbird.
So this is that wonderful conservative George Allen everyone has been talking about. I can see why people say he will bring true conservative ideals back to the Republican Party. SSDP (P for politician)
I can't wait until we have a GOP-majority Congress; why, with a Republican in the White House, just WATCH the fiscal responsibility and conservatism take over. I can hardly wait.
VA ping (if you're interested).
PING
You just don't understand modern Republican conservatism :-). If you want an explanation ping some of the retards people on the day in the life of George Bush thread (on second thought maybe not, they'll just whine at you)
Pork pork pork pork (like spam spam spam spam in The meaning of Life)
Not that it makes much difference, but IIRC it's not just a "train station." There are restaurants and shops (along a much smaller scale) like Union Station in D.C. But it's been over 20 years since I was actually there.
I'm not justifying the expense. I am wondering though if it's in Virginia and Tennessee. The state line goes directly down the middle of "State Street" in Tennessee.
PING
Oh come on now, let's be fair, what was Allen supposed to say at that point? YES, the bill is full of pork, but look at the vote tallies:
In the Senate it passed 91-4 with 5 not voting.
In the House it passed 412-8 with 14 not voting.
Heck, even Mike Pence (who some around her claim is Reagan Incarnate) voted for the bill. As did Frist, Brownback, Santorum and Tancredo.
And the only complaining you'll hear from any Republican Governor is that his state didn't get enough money.
I don't like the pork in the bill either. But there was no stopping this train (station).
Clinton, Boxer, Feinstein, and Mikulski?
Good grief. Bristol is tiny. WHO is going to use this train station, anyway? Not patrons of the Bristol drag strip.
And Roanoke, a railroad city with 250,000 people in the metropolitan area, can't even get passenger rail service because Norfolk Southern fights the idea tooth and nail. They might lose a bit of freight business.
I'm so glad Congress is stewarding our tax monies so responsibly.
How about using it to illustrate the problem with runaway federal pork spending instead of bragging about pulling one over on the taxpayers? I guess that is too much to ask. After all, everyone is doing it.
Clinton, Boxer, Feinstein, and Mikulski?
Hey! Unlike the above mentioned, the puppies are cute. And probably better better mannered.
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