Then what are they worth ?
It probably was doomed from the start by Senator Tom Coburn’s effort to create some at least symbolic fiscal sanity by diverting $ 230 million from the federal budget from a pointless bridge project in Alaska to Hurricane Katrina relief in the Gulf States, has been defeated by an 82-15 margin.
Mr. Coburn wanted to shift $125 million from the bridge to the Lake Pontchartrain spans, and then send the rest of the money back to Alaska for other projects, as long as they don’t go to pay for the bridge.
His amendment failed on an 82-15 vote, with 11 Republicans and four Democrats voting in favor.
Mr. Coburn, who has assumed the mantle of chief taxpayer watchdog in the Senate, said the bridge doesn’t make sense.
“So you can get perspective on this, $230 million for 50 people, where there’s a ferry service already running every 15-30 minutes that takes seven minutes to cross, is enough money to buy each one of them a Learjet,” he said. “A bridge longer than the Golden Gate for 50 people to a small area in Alaska is enough money to buy every one of the inhabitants their own — hundreds of speedboats, to cross any time they wanted.”
Of course, if you’re Alaska, it helps that one of your Senators happens to be President Pro Tempore of the Senate:
The president pro tem of the Senate got his $230 million bridge, but only after he threatened to quit if he didn’t.
Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the chamber’s senior Republican, became furious when Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, offered an amendment yesterday that would have forbidden building the bridge and sent some of the money to rebuild the Interstate 10 bridge across Lake Pontchartrain, which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
“If the Senate decides to discriminate against our state, to take money only from our state, I will resign from this body,” Mr. Stevens said. “If one senator can decide he’ll take all the money from one state to solve a problem of another, that is not a union. That is not equality.”
No, its called fiscal sanity. Why are my tax dollars subsidizing a bridge in Alaska that will barely be used to begin with ?
I suppose it was too much to hope that the GOP would seize on this as an opportunity to reverse some of the profligate spending that has dominated the nation in the past 4 years. Pork has always been more about politics than about need, and yesterday’s vote was purely politics.
For the record, here are the Senator’s brave enough to take a stand on this issue, one wonders if they will pay a price for it:
The 11 Republicans who voted to shift the bridge money to Louisiana were Sens. Wayne Allard of Colorado, George Allen of Virginia, Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, Mr. Coburn, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and David Vitter of Louisiana. The four Democrats were Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin and Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana.
