Remember The 'Bridge to Nowhere'?

[Annie]

Well it didn't get built, but Ted Steven's hopes he can change that plan to a ferry:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002518.html?hpid=topnews

Spending Bills Still Stuffed With Earmarks
Democrats Had Vowed To Curtail Pet Projects

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 21, 2007; A01

Twice in the past two years, Alaska lawmakers lost congressional earmarks to build two "bridges to nowhere" costing hundreds of millions of dollars after Congress was embarrassed by public complaints over the pet projects hidden in annual spending bills.

This year, Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who are Alaska Republicans, found another way to move cash to their state: Stevens secured more than $20 million for an "expeditionary craft" that will connect Anchorage with the windblown rural peninsula of Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Now what Alaska has, budget watchdogs contend, is a ferry to nowhere.

"Earmarks are a bipartisan affliction," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group that tracks the projects. "It would take leadership in both parties -- and a lot more shame -- to ever rein them in."

.......

"Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have teamed up to waste taxpayer dollars on silly pork projects and egotistical projects named after themselves," said Brian Riedl, senior budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.

The Alaska ferry project is one of the more expensive earmarks. Billed in Stevens's version of the legislation as an "expeditionary craft" to be used by the military, it is considered a passenger ferry by Young, according to his spokeswoman. It would follow roughly the same path as the second of the abandoned "bridges to nowhere." Stevens placed the earmark that will fund the ferry into the defense appropriations bill, which Bush signed last month.

Young's son-in-law owns land in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a remote region two hours by car from Anchorage. A ferry would shorten that commute to 15 minutes, making the borough valuable for housing development.

Meredith Kenny, a spokeswoman for Young, confirmed the family connection to the land. "Many Alaskans own land there," she said.

"They've been working on this since the mid-1990s," she said of the ferry project. "It's bipartisan, well wanted and needed. It's a bridge to growth and development."

 

[jillian]

Well it didn't get built, but Ted Steven's hopes he can change that plan to a ferry:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002518.html?hpid=topnews

Shocked, I tell ya... just shocked. Gotta give him credit, he keeps trying to put his hand in the till.

Now tell me again why they wanted to cut off anti-terrorism funds for NYC.. budget reasons, right? *rolls eyes*

 

[Annie]

Shocked, I tell ya... just shocked. Gotta give him credit, he keeps trying to put his hand in the till.

Now tell me again why they wanted to cut off anti-terrorism funds for NYC.. budget reasons, right? *rolls eyes*

Jillian, do you really want me to post all the Democratic earmarks? I was justly criticizing Stevens, don't turn it more partisan. Please.

 

[jillian]

Jillian, do you really want me to post all the Democratic earmarks? I was justly criticizing Stevens, don't turn it more partisan. Please.

Oh...there are dem earmarks, too. I hate them also. But Stevens is the one who threw a giant temper tantrum about his so he deserves to get zotzed.

Plus, to be fair, the dems aren't the ones talking about smaller governement and how it's every man for himself. They're greedy, but not quite as hypocritical about it.

 

[Annie]

Oh...there are dem earmarks, too. I hate them also. But Stevens is the one who threw a giant temper tantrum about his so he deserves to get zotzed.

Plus, to be fair, the dems aren't the ones talking about smaller governement and how it's every man for himself. They're greedy, but not quite as hypocritical about it.

Well other than Paul, there are few Republicans talking small government either. GW being a case in point. When there is someone that will address the earmarks, out of control entitlement programs, etc., both parties will be in trouble.

 

[onedomino]

Well it didn't get built, but Ted Steven's hopes he can change that plan to a ferry:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002518.html?hpid=topnews

I do not know the details of this particular proposal and perhaps it is inappropriate. And I do not support the "earmark" process of slipped-under-the-table funding. The quoted WP article, however, is full of innuendo and sparse of fact regarding the project. In general, I have no problem with public funds being used for transportation infrastructure that opens new land for development. Apparently, the place in question is 2 hours from Anchorage by car, but only 15 minutes by ferry. If it was only 15 minutes from Anchorage, then it could be developed for housing. What is wrong with that? It is said someone owns the land and would benefit. Someone always benefits, and there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. If there had been a public uproar in the past every time public funds were used to build transportation infrastructure from some developed place to an undeveloped place, we'd still be living in the early 19th Century.

 

[jillian]

Here ya go... all you ever wanted to know about the Bridge to Nowhere and more

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Island_Bridge

 

[William Joyce]

Someone always benefits

And someone always loses --- American taxpayers.

That's the problem with the liberal view of government spending. It's not manna from heaven. It's taking from one group, workers and taxpayers, and giving to another. The tax money saved could have gone toward education, mortgage payments, you name it, by the people. But no. They have it taken away, at gunpoint, so that Ted Stevens' well-connected friends can feather their nests. The "public good" is almost never the main concern, nor is "the national good."