Here's an idea!

[bsnyder]

From the Wall Street Journal this morning:

Some public-spirited folks in Bozeman, Montana, have come up with a wonderful idea to help Uncle Sam offset some of the $62 billion federal cost of Hurricane Katrina relief. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that Montanans from both sides of the political aisle have petitioned the city council to give the feds back a $4 million earmark to pay for a parking garage in the just-passed $286 billion highway bill. As one of these citizens, Jane Shaw, told us: "We figure New Orleans needs the money right now a lot more than we need extra downtown parking space."

Which got us thinking: Why not cancel all of the special-project pork in the highway bill and dedicate the $25 billion in savings to emergency relief on the Gulf Coast? Is it asking too much for Richmond, Indiana, to give up $3 million for its hiking trail, or Newark, New Jersey, to put a hold on its $2 million bike path?

Sounds like a great plan to me!

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I think every state can tighten their belt a bit and help the government offset the cost of rebuilding....Maybe MA could scrap their overspending on the Big Dig, and send a little to New Orleans..

Don't get me started...

 

[AllyandJack]

Me, too.

Especially considering NH's portion is going for that horrible I-93 expansion.

Memo to NH Big Wigs: I don't hit traffic in NH. I hit the traffic in MA....and it's already 4 lanes down there! It's not broken. Don't fix it. Widen the breakdown lanes so minor accidents don't cause big problems and we're all set.

Send the money to LA to help them rebuild roads/bridges that were destroyed. Our turn will come in the future if it's deemed necessary. Right now...not necessary.

 

[AllyandJack]

I think every state can tighten their belt a bit and help the government offset the cost of rebuilding....Maybe MA could scrap their overspending on the Big Dig, and send a little to New Orleans..

Don't get me started...

No way....how will all the contractors tile the pools at their houses if they can't skim some off the stock from the Big Dig?!

 

[CEDmom]

I don't have a problem with this if the money was guaranteed to go where it's intended. However, the govt needs to find some other company besides Halliburton to do the work. Using them gives a whole new meaning to "conflict of interest".

 

[Charade]

I don't have a problem with this if the money was guaranteed to go where it's intended. However, the govt needs to find some other company besides Halliburton to do the work. Using them gives a whole new meaning to "conflict of interest".

How so? I thought the VP didn't have any ties to them anymore.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

I think this would be a great idea! Three cheers for the people of Bozeman, MT!

 

[AllyandJack]

How could we suggest to our own states to do this?

What if we all wrote to our governors, senators, etc and referenced this and said it would be a nice idea if our state also participated? Not to say we should give ALL the money, since I'm sure there are NECESSARY road repairs in each state. But, the big unnecessary projects should be put on hold to help LA rebuild.

I might send a few e-mails this weekend and mention it to my neighbors and friends in NH.

 

[bsnyder]

How could we suggest to our own states to do this?

What if we all wrote to our governors, senators, etc and referenced this and said it would be a nice idea if our state also participated? Not to say we should give ALL the money, since I'm sure there are NECESSARY road repairs in each state. But, the big unnecessary projects should be put on hold to help LA rebuild.

I might send a few e-mails this weekend and mention it to my neighbors and friends in NH.

I think a grassroots effort is a great idea! I'll try to hunt around on the web later today - maybe there's something set up somewhere to facilitate this.

Yes, there are certainly vital road projects in the transportation bill, and those shouldn't be touched, but bike paths and hiking trails?

 

[WDWBetsy]

I agree! Good idea.

Just glancing at the Indiana list on the highway bill, it looked pretty wasteful. I know there are many improvements that do need to occur in our state, but many were porkish.

 

[ThAnswr]

How so? I thought the VP didn't have any ties to them anymore.

Sorry, Charade, the Vulcan mind meld and memory eraser only work on Star Trek.

As long as Cheney is alive and breathing, he'll have ties to Halliburton.

 

[ThAnswr]

I think they ought to start with the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.

 

[ducklite]

How so? I thought the VP didn't have any ties to them anymore.

Stock and "ties" are very different. Just because he's no longer in a decision making position doesn't mean that the good old boy network isn't alove and very well. I just left the company I worked for for over five years. I chased in my stock options, closed out my 401K and moved the money into a IRA, and even cashed in my pension money to add to another IRA. I have ZERO financial ties left. But I still ahve friends that work there and get all sorts of good gossip and such. And my old boss still calls me for help and advice.

Anne

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

That is a great idea.

 

[bsnyder]

I think they ought to start with the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.

ITA! Brrrrrr.....

 

[crazyforgoofy]

Charade, I heard a talking head say recently that Mr. Cheney received something in the neighborhood of $130 something thousand dollars from Haliburton last year.

Haliburton's involvement in the rebuilding of the coast makes me unhappy.

 

[swilphil]

Actually Cheney received almost $195,000 in 2004, according to a White House Press Release.

 

[bsnyder]

Maybe this idea will catch on:

Investor's Business Daily
Printer Version | Reprints and webprints


It's Better To Give
Posted 9/14/2005

Spending: Having fallen, the federal deficit recently lost its appeal as a political issue. Now it's back. Disaster relief expenditures have set off the yammering.

The first federal relief package for the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast was $10.5 billion in emergency funds. Then came another $51.8 billion from Washington.

Professional fretters, led by gloomy columnists such as David Broder, and political opportunists are casting long shadows over the spending, declaring that it is yet another disaster created by the Bush White House. They see the deficit hitting a half trillion dollars this year.

And they, no surprise here, demonize the Bush tax cuts as part of the problem. They're not. The problem is what it always is in Washington, no matter who holds Congress or who sits in the White House: Too much spending.

There is a way out. For every buck Washington spends on Katrina relief, Congress has to cut a dollar from somewhere else in the budget. Every House member and every senator, as a show of support for the hurricane's victims, should publicly give up a pork project in their district or in their state.

This includes lawmakers from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, as well. Those states accept pork just as the other 47 do, and it's a certainty that taxpayers' dollars went to pet projects in those coastal states that could have blunted the effects of Katrina had they been used properly.

The first stop for cutting the fat should be the leviathan highway bill. That larded piece of legislation, priced at $286.4 billion, has more than 6,000 pet projects that total $25 billion. Columnist George Will writes that is "about 10 times more than the price of the levee New Orleans needed" to keep the city from flooding.

As Will also points out, "Louisiana's congressional delegation larded the bill with $540,580,200 worth of earmarks, one-fifth the price of a capable levee."

Getting a grip on this spending comes too late to have kept Lake Pontchartrain from pouring into the Crescent City, but not too late to keep the deficit from growing.

Beyond the highway bill, there are thousands of places to cut pork. How about trimming that $3.97 million dedicated for shrimp aquaculture research in Arizona (Arizona?), Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas? Or the $5.79 million budgeted for the East-West Center in Hawaii?

Congress could save $3.4 million pledged for the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. It could forget the $1.15 million budgeted for the American Film Institute's Screen Education Program in California and the $5 million for fishing access roads in Montana.

These projects add up quickly. Citizens Against Government Waste estimates — as we noted here yesterday — that Congress in 2005 approved $27.3 billion on nearly 14,000 projects that fit the definition of pork. The watchdog group also believes that waste will cost nearly $190 billion in the current fiscal year and $1.65 trillion over the next five. So there's plenty to cut.

In addition to everyone giving up a pork project, lawmakers should also pledge that they won't include any new pet funding in future disaster relief bills for Katrina. To tack on pork would suggest a United Nations level of corruption. Keep it clean.

 

[ThAnswr]

Maybe this idea will catch on:

What is your complaint? You got the goverment you wanted. The Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the WH. You got rid of the "tax and spend" Democrats and you've replaced them with the "spend and pass the bills on to your children/grandchildren/great-children" Republicans.

If you don't like what's going on, maybe you're voting for the wrong people? DUH!

 

[peachgirl]

Nope, count me out.

I don't want to give up a dime of whatever pittance we have in the bill, not as long as it's going to line the pockets of Cheney and Haliburton.