Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Young Stomps Foot: That's MY Bridge Pork Money

Proving once again today's Republicans are rife with compassionate conservatism, Don Young (R-AK) - when asked if perhaps the $460+ million that were allotted to Alaska in the new transportation act might not be better spent helping with the rebuilding of those areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina - effectively stomped his foot and threw a little hissy fit:
"They can kiss my ear!" Young boomed when Sam Bishop, Washington correspondent for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, asked him about the many pleas to redirect the bridge money.

"That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Young went on, noting that Louisiana did quite well in his highway bill.

And, the congressman said, he helped the seafood industry donate more than $500,000 for hurricane victims. (That was at the "Seafood Invitational," a charity golf tournament Sept. 9 in Roslyn, Wash., Bishop reported Friday.)

"I raised enough money to give back to them voluntarily," he said, "and that's it!"
So here's the question: since Bush has stated that, not only will taxes not be raised to fund the potentially $200 billion recovery effort, but he has no problem with the US deficit spiraling even further out of control while preserving tax cuts for the wealthy, well, where the fuck is that money supposed to come from? Is it more important to build useless bridges than it is to help three states achieve a semblance of normalcy?

In Bush's America, it is. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And the most callous.

2 comments:

Jim said...

You might be interested to know that one of those bridges ($231 million worth) goes to Gravina Island, which has a population of 50 people.

That's 4.6 million dollars for each resident of the island.

Carol Elaine said...

Not to be nit-picky, my dear Butcher, but the Gravina Island bridge is going to be $223 million, which would put the cost per resident at $4.4 million. The other bridge? Slated to cost $231 million, it will connect Anchorage with Port MacKenzie and Knik, whose combined population is 23 people. Cost per resident? Approximately $10,043,478. Give or take a few cents.

Yeah, that makes fiscal sense.