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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (220664)	2/24/2005 8:43:05 PM
From: SilentZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574060

>This obviously accounts for that masterful engineering feat, The Big Dig. You ever been through it? It's very impressive, and very helpful. It was just too expensive and leaks a bit. But they definitely needed it. -Z

To: i-node who wrote (220664)	2/24/2005 9:21:17 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574060

Building a $200 million bridge to nowhere ? with your money Manchester Union Leader ^ \| February 3, 2005 \| John Stossel Posted on 02/03/2005 3:22:00 AM PST by billorites DON YOUNG has a bridge he wants to sell you. It’s not the Brooklyn Bridge, but it’s taller. It’s not the Golden Gate Bridge, but it’s almost as long. It’ll take you to the airport, if you happen to be flying out of Ketchikan, Alaska. Not buying? Maybe you are: Don Young is a member of Congress. Ketchikan, Alaska, is a little tourist town — a very little tourist town. Only 14,000 people live there, and it has just one main road. But years ago, Alaska persuaded Congress to build an airport on a nearby island. The airport has only six or eight flights a day, and people get there by taking a boat ride. The ride takes just seven minutes, and people love it. One told ABC News, “When people come to Ketchikan, that little ferry ride is what they remember.” Another, who called the ferry system “just dandy,” pointed out a feature that might endear it to all of us: “It doesn’t cost $200 million.” Maybe I should say that’s a feature that might endear it to all of us who don’t represent Alaska in Congress, as Don Young, a Republican, does. Two hundred million dollars is the price tag on the bridge he wants to build to rescue people from that dandy ferry. Now, some of us are worried about our taxes being too high. Some of us are worried that the government may not be able to fund Medicare. Some of us are worried about soft-headed politicians wasting our hard-earned money. In fact, some of us might even agree with the congressman who said to his colleagues, “If any of you think 1 percent can’t be cut out of any part of our budget, you haven’t been here that long, and most of you have been here that long.” That congressman was — you guessed it — Don Young. But he said that back when the Democrats were in charge. Today, Young is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and in control of the big transportation bills. Now, he no longer sees pork-barrel spending as just a horrible waste of money. For Don Young, pork can be a wonderful waste of money. “Don Young said he stuffed this bill like a turkey and he’s proud of that,” says Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense. Ashdown’s organization awarded Young’s bridge the Golden Fleece Award, a prize reserved for what TCS calls “wasteful, ironic or ridiculous” ways to use — or misuse — the money the government forces us to give it in taxes. “Don Young has turned into a tax-and-spend Republican,” says Ashdown. “He wants you and me to pay for his bridges to nowhere.” Nowhere? Well, there is that airport, but beyond that, the island has no roads and is home mostly to trees. Rep. Young says the bridge is worth the price because it would create jobs in Alaska. But that’s just politicians’ folly because the $200 million would create more jobs if it were left with the people who made the money in the first place, instead of being taken from them by the government. And in any case, an economist who studied the matter for the state says that once the construction workers finished their work and went home, the bridge would probably create about 40 new jobs. Two hundred million dollars for 40 jobs is $5 million per job. I hope they’re great jobs. Young wouldn’t talk to me about this. Maybe he’s too busy bringing home even more money for Alaskans. His state is one of the least populated in America, but he has helped get it more pork dollars than any other state but one. Some of that pork, like the Ketchikan bridge, isn’t even popular with the locals. Most of the people ABC News talked to in that little tourist town with the scenic ferry said they didn’t want a bridge. They gave it descriptions like “a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money,” “a boondoggle” and “a rotten idea.” Don Young must think it’s a good idea, though. It’s so good he wants to improve on it. He’s found another nearly empty piece of Alaska where there’s room for a bridge, and he wants to spend your money to build one there, too. What’s the improvement? This next bridge may cost a billion dollars. Give me a break. freerepublic.com