When teenage fashion habits are getting attention from congressional
budgeters, even CNNs American Morning can expose pork-barrel
spending for what it is.
Soledad OBriens segment on the November 17 show gave
a solid free-market perspective on taxpayer-funded projects,
including money for Alaskas Bridge to Nowhere and a grant for a
Missouri community to de-Goth its teenagers.
Noting that some Missourians were afraid teens were
wearing too much black and got money from the government to combat
that threat OBrien made a surprisingly free-market-friendly
comment. Although these could all be really valid issues, she
said, most people would ask, why am I paying for the teenagers in
Blue Springs, Missouri, to realize there are other colors?
While OBrien wondered if pork projects, however silly,
are really such a big deal since they amount to a tiny percentage
of the budget, Heritage Foundation Budget Analyst Brian Riedl
explained the issue was bigger than a few wasted dollars here and
there.
It's a very big deal because not only is it one
percent of the budget, $27 billion, which is a lot of money, but it
holds lawmakers hostage, explained Riedl. If you get a pork
project, which virtually all of them do, you have to vote for the
legislation. So lawmakers who want pork projects have to vote for
all of the legislation, all of the spending bills. They basically
lose their independence.
The end result, he concluded, is that the entire
government expands.
Now that the Bridge to Nowhere planned for rural
Alaska is off the drawing board, OBrien and Riedl were discussing
where taxpayers money is going instead. OBrien showed viewers how
much the bridge would have set taxpayers back: Take a look at where
it would go. Its a $223 million project for essentially what would
be three miles of bridge. She added that while Congress put the
kibosh on that, the money is not going to go to other projects,
like, for example, hurricane relief for some victims there.
Riedl agreed that Hurricane Katrina relief could have
more funding at the expense of pork projects, and aside from being
politically popular, that would make more sense for repairing the
Gulf Coasts heavily damaged infrastructure. But, he explained,
Alaskas senators refused to yield any funding, even though Alaska
gets much more than any other state in highway funding.
OBrien listed a few other pork spending items which
have no value to the average American taxpayer:
-
$250,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in Cleveland, Ohio
which Riedl pointed out could be funded by musicians
themselves instead of taxpayers
$50,000 for ex-cons tattoo removal in southern California
$250,000 grant to combat teenage Goth culture in Missouri
