Today's Seattle Times reports that our local congressional delegation has pulled in billions of dollars of federal spending, much of it textbook examples of pork barrel idiocy
There's $240,000 for an undersea museum in Keyport, Kitsap County, $121,250 for improvements to a former vaudeville theater in Bellinghamand
• $1 million for a proposed Seattle trolley line from downtown's Westlake Center to South Lake Union. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray secured $1 million for this project in previous appropriations, and it's seen as an important step forward for Mayor Greg Nickels' plan for the area.not to mention:
• $500,000 to restore the former Cooper School into a cultural center and artist housing in Seattle's Delridge area. "We're thrilled," said Philippa Nye, project manager of the Delridge Neighborhoods Development AssociationSome of us are not thrilled.
And don't get me started on the $84 million that the feds are blowing on the Sound Transit boondoggle:
Of that amount, $80 million will go toward funding construction of the Central Link light rail. Another $4 million will be used for the Sounder commuter rail programThe Sounder, recall, only serves about 300 rides per day between Everett and Seattle and another 3,000 rides per day between Seattle and Tacoma (according to a Sound Transit spokesman). Those are one-way rides, so cut those numbers in half to arrive at the numbers of commuters making round trips on Sounder every day: 1,650. The federal subsidy is $2,424 per commuter.
Oink! Oink!
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 30, 2004 11:07 AM | Email ThisFor all those years when the GOP screamed about D pork-barrel spending, it was thought "Hey. Rs are fiscally responsible. They'll cut spending."
That flat-out hasn't happened, and it's something they ought to pay attention to because many of the fiscal conservatives in the base aren't happy.
Posted by: jimg on November 30, 2004 11:21 AMbecause many of the fiscal conservatives in the base aren't happy.
Like this one for example.
And the dirty little secret is, cutting spending wouldn't be that hard! All Congress would need to do is appoint some kind of non-political oversight board to review spending and kill waste and pork. This could be either an apolitical commission --- such as that used for Pentagon Base Realignment and Closing, or even a private accounting firm.
The recommendations of the commission wouldn't have to be binding, but it would shine a very bright light on the billions of unnecessary spending in the budget.
Also, real defense spending is at less than 70% of Cold War levels as a percentage of GNP. Consider how small the deficit would be if entitlement and domestic expenditures were at 70% of Cold War levels.
Posted by: Matt J Kurlander on November 30, 2004 11:31 AM