The senior senator from Washington state has a position on pork; she's in favor of it. For those who have doubts about that, read this interchange in a George Will column:
When [Oklahoma senator Tom] Coburn disparaged an earmark for Seattle -- $500,000 for a sculpture garden -- Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) was scandalized: "We are not going to watch the senator pick out one project and make it into a whipping boy." She invoked the code of comity: "I hope we do not go down the road deciding we know better than home state senators about the merits of the projects they bring to us." And she warned of Armageddon: "I tell my colleagues, if we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next." But Coburn, who does not do earmarks, thinks Armageddon sounds like fun.
Note that Murray does not even claim that these projects meet cost/benefit tests, which is, as I said in this post, how you can tell whether a project is pork. If the costs of a project are greater than the benefits, then the project is pork.
Or take a look at her ratings from the National Taxpayer's Union. Those ratings are not a perfect measure of how much a representative wastes our money but they do give you a rough idea. In 2003, the NTU gave Murray a 16 and in 2004, a 13.
What's the worst pork project Murray has supported? My guess would be Sound Transit's light rail program, which she has been pushing hard. The spending there is already greater than the proposed spending on Alaska's famous "bridge to nowhere". The waste in this light rail program will be at least one order of magnitude greater than the waste would have been for that bridge, and if there are cost overruns, may be two orders of magnitude greater.
Sadly, I must admit that Murray's wasteful ways may well have helped her with the voters. Even the light rail project may work to her advantage, although I think that a majority of the state's voters would now oppose it. The minority that favors building the light rail system (instead of my more practical alternative, toy trains for the politicians who have been backing it) are probably more intense, more likely to vote on that issue.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
(To help kill the wasteful light rail program, we need a good nickname for it. That Alaskan bridge might still be in the budget if it were not for the "bridge to nowhere" nickname. If you have any suggestions, pass them on. We want something both funny and tasteful.
Thanks to a reader for telling me about that George Will column.)
Posted by Jim Miller at February 20, 2006 11:04 AM | Email ThisOr are they actually elected? Personally I really rather doubt it with our totally broken and corruption driven electorial process.
/totally disgusted with washington politics / politicians - when do we get statesmen instead - do such mythical beasts still exist (and I lived in chicago, which is pristine compared to this)?
That is the piggy attitude that has gotten into this mess.
The Federal Government should be in the business of National projects that have a national impact.
The Senate resembles 12 piglets on a ten teet sow. Comity my a**!
Posted by: JCM on February 20, 2006 11:34 AMGoodness-- if WA wants a 'sculpture garden', it can use local money for that.
This is just more evidence of waste in the federal budget.
Posted by: Michele on February 20, 2006 11:45 AMThere's no way any of the beauraucrats in this state could ever figure out how to build a sculpture garden for only $500,000... I'm sure the other $11.5 million's got to come from somewhere.
Posted by: Vexorg on February 20, 2006 12:19 PMIt's time that Congress on both sides eliminates the habit of earmarking funds for local, feel-good projects that the majority of taxpayers don't need or want.
That's one wasteful part of the Fed budget that can immediately be removed, along with local transportation projects like the "Train to Nowhere," currently being foisted on King County taxpayers.
Posted by: Clean House on February 20, 2006 12:39 PMIn the same way that Rather was brought down, and Kerry and Gore exposed for what they really are, Murray and the rest of the Senate porkers will be brought down.
Just like the loony left here in Seattle is unwilling to accept that Stefan and most of the SP readership is not simply on a mission to reform voting for any benefit to Conservatives, but instead to restore integrity to the system as a whole, Conservatives are more than willing to forgore and cancel our pork earmarks if they contribute to an overall sound fiscal policy for our country. We can all do with spending appropriately instead of lining up at the Government trough. Leftsits like Murray just can't see a world without entitelment.
But it's not Murray's decision. It's our decision and she will acquiesce as the pressure increases.
Posted by: Jeff B. on February 20, 2006 01:04 PM"The Toilet Train"
Because it will just go around in circles right down the drain.
Posted by: CommonSense Coug on February 20, 2006 01:39 PMI no longer bother. They don't answer until months after the fact and then it's by an irrelevant form letter.
Our state legislators answer a bit more promptly, but then I suppose it's just their glee in insulting us.
The senators don't care about unless they know that the results are going to be visible. The press really does take note of what they get letters about, and right now almost 100% of what they get is from union members. (A lot of it written by PR flacks from the unions then "signed" with the name of a union member.)
Posted by: Johnny on February 20, 2006 02:12 PMhttp://www.pbs.org/now/politics/earmarksetc.html
The show featured a significant piece on Patty and the Sculpture garden as well as the Alaskan Bridge to nowhere which they did say was getting funded anyway as mentioned above.
Posted by: dave on February 20, 2006 02:12 PMRon Sims asks for a favor, and Party Line Patty, will do anything a dem comes up with. If she ever comes up with a really original idea, hers, not some staffer, I'll eat my shorts.
And yes I regularly email our delegation, I've gotten original responses from the congressional office, but only boilerplate auto replies from our Senators.
While back KC was soliciting submissions for art in the Shoreline transfer station station (art in a dump project). The contract was for $250,000. I submitted a concept:
Sculpture of a hand visible to S.B. I5 at the Transfer Station. With the Middle finger raised in salute entitled "Ron Sims message to the Taxpayers." Never got a response that my submission was received. Go figure.
Posted by: JCm on February 20, 2006 03:31 PMTall enough to reach the PO Box where my mail comes to every day so my personal records do not get stolen and strewed all over the road like was the case twice before I transfered all my mail to a PO box. Got a problem with that?
Your e-mail does have a small affect. It will be read by an aide and noted on a tally sheet as either opposing or supporting her position on an issue. Then you will be sent the latest pre-prepared response letter on the appropriate subject. Or as close to the subject as a response letter exists. You'll become a tick mark in her tracking of how her constituency feels.
Posted by: RBW on February 20, 2006 03:52 PMThink how hurtful it would be if fellow members of his cell...er... mosque... were to learn that Rep. Mohammed Abu Shabubu had "brought home the bacon". Every pious imam from Istanbul to Samarkand would be issuing a fatwah against him!
Perhaps, in an attemt to show sensitivity to our Islamo brethren, instead of saying that Patty Murray is bringing home the bacon, we can say she is bringing home "the head of an infidel", something the religion of peace wouldn't be ashamed of and could actually take pride in.
Posted by: Cartman on February 20, 2006 04:14 PM/I can't stop laughing!
Posted by: kim in vancouver on February 20, 2006 04:46 PMAS long as there is a 2.6 trillion dollar pot to grab from in the form of a federal government budget (yes, that is trillion with a T) There will always be Abramoff scandals, pork projects, and democratic senators crying that republicans can't balance a budget while screaming for more money to their state.
Posted by: Jason Woodruff on February 20, 2006 04:55 PMI think Dave was joking about all the private mailbox residences that KCE tolerate/encourage.
Posted by: Danny on February 20, 2006 05:02 PMShe hired OJ to look, one of these days he'll find a daycare and the killers in a sand trap.
Posted by: JCm on February 20, 2006 05:04 PMSorry if I took it wrong! :)
Still there is no way to check to see if a whole bunch of usage is one specific PO box. We should have PO boxes included in this search if possible
Posted by: GS on February 20, 2006 05:25 PMAside from the fact that your post has nothing to do with this thread, I'll be the one in the peanut gallery to stand up and say this ONE MORE TIME:
The LAW says you have to register a RESIDENCE address AND a mailing address if you get your mail at PO box.
This is why the data base is based on LEGAL RESIDENCE DATA which determines the precinct in which and thus the ballot you are entitled to vote.
Your PO Box, unless you actually live in it, is an ILLEGAL RESIDENCE ADDRESS. Hence the reference to your height.
Now back to the regularly scheduled PORK thread...
Posted by: Dave on February 20, 2006 05:29 PMI would think the DB would show the address of registration, but may be mistaken.
It is legal to receive ballots at a mailbox, if the registrant provides their legal residential address. Residence determines voting districts.
Shark, which address is in the DB registration, mailing or both?
Posted by: JCM on February 20, 2006 05:31 PMOr, maybe "Light rail to nowhere".
"Big Dig West".
"The liberal's reality check at taxpayer expense".
"Seattle's Folly".
"Somebody tell Seattle that the locomotive age is over".
"The monorail's big sister".
"The monorail's ugly step-sister".
Posted by: Republican (by default) on February 20, 2006 05:33 PMMore like "Washingtonians get the shaft [again]".
Stupid Patty keeps on going..
Posted by: righton on February 20, 2006 06:12 PMI be watching too much PBS...
Posted by: Organization Man on February 20, 2006 06:15 PMor, depending on the wit of the audience,
Sleight Rail
Posted by: Rex on February 20, 2006 06:36 PMOr the Train to Nowhere
Posted by: seadog on February 20, 2006 07:09 PMPerhaps since it is all about Seattle, it would be better to call it:
Bringing home the Sprouts
or
TOFU Blob Spending!
Has a nice ring to it.
Posted by: Michele on February 21, 2006 02:12 AMAgain, let me suggest this simple rule of thumb: If you would be uncomfortable having your comment read by a child, then don't post it.
Posted by: Jim Miller on February 21, 2006 06:37 AMWe will soon be bombing Iran.
Posted by: sans-culotte on February 21, 2006 06:54 AMNo new rail will get built if oil is $262/barrel because NOBODY will buy oil at that price which means nobody will be paying gas taxes as the economy tanks.
So just exactly how will this fabulous plan to save us from high oil costs, a 10 year project at least, get paid for when the whole economy tanks "in the very near future?"
I can see Pork Barrel Patty on the podium now... "Don't you all worry that you have no jobs and you can't make your car/house/credit card payments because I'm here to build you a new train and oh yeah,,, a sculpture garden!!!"
Mr. Culotte, I always ask this question, "why doesn't Seattle and the area have rail or underground transit already?"
I have my own ideas, but it has to do with irrelevant things like density, topography and streams and lakes.
And then the followup question is "If the reason for not having rail or underground transit is not valid anymore, can we reasonably build it?"
Until I can get some good answers, I am dead set against the latest boondoggles. We need capacity and I don't mean a lane addition here and there.
Posted by: swatter on February 21, 2006 07:03 AMIs it really a day late, a dollar short? We have always had liberals in office, so what is the difference? Why didn't we have rail and subways?
Maybe, it is because it was cost-ineffective and remains so.
Posted by: swatter on February 21, 2006 10:22 AMI enjoy art as much as the next person, but I don't think we need to subsidize people's esthetic experiences. If there is that much demand for this "art", then it shouldn't require government backing. And, people would have more money to spend on these frills if they weren't being taxed for every piddly project that comes down the pike. It's too easy to spend other people's money.
Posted by: Peggy U on February 21, 2006 12:04 PMLight rail is just a bus system that uses trains that have yet to be built and purchased that run on a system of rails that have yet to be built on land that has yet to be purchased (at high prices or stolen using eminent domain laws) with money that has yet to be collected in taxes on money that has yet to be earned or spent which has no direct connection to transit or related transactions (in most cases).
It has all the makings of a boondoggle.
Posted by: Republican (by default) on February 21, 2006 03:15 PMName suggestion for the rail:
Train Drain (your money goes down with it)
For the Alaskan Way Tunnel (of which we are supposedly getting $500 mil or so from the feds):
Save Our Seawall (SOS) Project
The Tunnel Funnel (see Train Drain comment)
Seattle's Latest Underground Rebuilding Project (SLURP)
As long as moc's get rewarded for bringing home pork to their home state, the system will never reform. People just don't vote based on how much money their moc returned to the federal budget.
I suggested 'The Big Dig West' for lightrail, but when you mentioned the seawall I think I'd put that name there instead.
Posted by: Republican (by default) on February 21, 2006 05:34 PMHopefully Sen. Coburn will step in and bring on Armageddon - before this country spends itself into ever-shrinking dollar...