Posted on 12/03/2016 1:04:05 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Earmarks again are a topic in Congress, and people in this part of Pennsylvania shouldn’t condemn them.
Back in the 1970s, when highway construction was booming around the biggest population centers of the Keystone State, places like Altoona, Johnstown, Ebensburg and Bedford were told that once those projects were completed, work would begin on their roadway needs.
But as the large-scale projects around Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Erie were completed, the promises that had been made to Blair County and other smaller-population areas, didn’t materialize because of alleged money shortages.
The message seemed to be: “We’ll get to you sometime, but for now all promises are off the table.”
The Southern Alleghenies region was angry for having been misled, but those reneging on the original promises hadn’t anticipated the arrival of Congressmen Bud Shuster of Everett and John P. Murtha of Johnstown.
After winning election in the early ’70s, and as their congressional seniority grew, Shuster and Murtha used their growing power on Capitol Hill to “bring home the bacon” to their districts. And, congressional earmarks — funding directed by lawmakers to specific projects — were what that “bacon” was all about.
Think how far behind Altoona’s economy would now be if Interstate 99 — an earmarks project of Shuster — never would have materialized. Consider how much the Route 22 corridor economy would be suffering if that highway wouldn’t have been rebuilt to modern standards.
Consider what probably would have been the defense industry’s virtual non-existence in this region if Murtha hadn’t brought home defense dollars by way of earmarks.
More on the highway front: Think how this region might benefit economically if a four-lane, limited-access Route 219 connection to Interstate 68 in northern Maryland finally were built. Also, think how the economy of areas east of Hollidaysburg could benefit if a modern Route 22 replaced the existing outdated roadway.
Earmarks got a bad name in part because Murtha and Shuster — and some other lawmakers — were so successful with the money they steered home. Earmarks came to be scorned as “pork,” short for pork-barrel spending, with demands for ending them mushrooming until a ban was imposed in 2010.
However, Congress didn’t comprehend the ban’s full meaning — that it had voluntarily handed over congressional spending authority to the government’s executive branch, which had no problem welcoming it.
Now, finally acknowledging what occurred, some lawmakers want the ban overturned.
“It’s time to take that back in a responsible way,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
Rep. Bill Shuster, who became the 9th District’s representative after his father’s retirement, has argued that the earmarks would be preferable to opaque executive-branch spending.
But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has put on hold the growing push to bring them back, one of his concerns reportedly being the pledge of President-elect Donald Trump to “drain the swamp” in Washington.
However, Ryan pledged a more thorough debate and said he would allow a vote by the end of March.
Pennsylvania’s 9th and 12th districts — the 12th now is represented by Republican Keith Rothfus — could benefit again if earmarks were revived.
The six counties of the Southern Alleghenies region — Blair, Bedford, Cambria, Somerset, Huntingdon and Fulton — shouldn’t be reluctant to support earmarks’ return, considering how much they were victims of past broken promises.
PING!
How are highways funded now?
Interstate 99 is an abomination - as it broke the numbering system.
They are the way to enslave the taxpayer
I hate them
Why is it so hard to give the money back to the states and let them spend it on their own construction?
Or if it’s truly a federal project, just write the bill to fund what needs to be funded? Why is an “earmark” needed to write a bill that funds whatever?
Good questions.
earmarks are just a regional urban tax on the rest of America.
Get rid of them.
Earmarks are why McConnell got re-elected. He engineered about $4 Billion dollars of Federal Spending in Kentucky.
You think crony capitalism is bad. You haven’t seen corruption if they reinstitute that. Actually they still do it but under the radar. Ask Mitch McConnell.
Campaign managers or other cronies back in the district form a "do-good foundation for the children."
The Congressional infestation then connives to allocate tax dollars for some phony "do-good " project that actually goes into their pockets.
The criminal Clintons got the idea for their nefarious foundation from these guys.
I moved to Arizona from Ohio. In Dayton, the I-75 S curve-—and I’m not making this up-—was under construction since 1985 when I moved there. 31 years.
We would vacation in AZ at my mother’s house in the 1990s. Late in the 1990s, they began construction of the 101 N/S route, and the 202 loop. These are major, huge construction projects. I think they finished both in five years.
Yes, roads can be fixed by government, and maintained well. I’ve done a lot of historical research on private roads. Technically, totally privately funded roads are possible, but there are a host of legal problems about collection. For example, if a car has a chip and is behind on payments, can it not get on? How? Do you have a computer sensor disable the engine? Do you do this while the car is in the queue? Can you do it if the past due bill comes up after it’s on the road? What if this causes an accident?
The original private roads failed, not because entrepreneurs couldn’t build and maintain them, but because not one could be secured so it could make a profit. “Shunpikes” appeared everywhere, negating the “turnstyles” that paid for the roads.
I know Disney has private roads in Florida, but they aren’t toll roads. The cost of the road is built into park costs.
redistribution of wealth or money is socialism.. the USA has been guilty of this for almost a century especially after the income tax and federal reserve was instituted.
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