Even though in 2002 Bush came out with a war against congressional pork, he just signed into law a $286 billion transportation measure that contains a record 6,371 pet projects inserted by members of Congress from both parties.
Hundreds of million of our tax dollars will be channeled to programs that have nothing to do with alleviating congestion or helping the efficiency of transportation.
Instead, it is putting $24 billion into all of these pet projects (that is nearly nine percent of the total spending) that congressmen can take back to their people and get reelected because they did truely "bring home the bacon".
These pet projects supports such things as $2.3 million for the beautification of the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California -- $6 million for graffiti elimination in New York -- $4 million on the National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan -- $2.4 million for a Red River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Louisiana and $1.2 million to install lighting and steps and to equip an interpretative facility at the Blue Ridge Music Center and many, many more that have nothing to do with transportation.
Your transportation dollars at work.
The California Curmudgeon
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