Opinion
Washington's spending corruption is a bi-partisan rot
Examiner Editorial
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June 29, 2009
Nothing better illustrates why the bankrupting of America is an unstoppable freight train than last week’s announcement of a $500 billion transportation bill. Beaming at the bipartisan scene were House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar, D-MN, joined by the panel’s ranking Republican, Rep. John Mica, R-FL. Also on hand were Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, who chairs the transportation subcommittee, and the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, Rep. John Duncan, R-TN. In the words of Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), these four powerful members of Congress “stood before the American people and announced that Congress will pass a half-trillion dollar transportation plan before the current plan expires on September 30, but didn’t give us a clue as to how they will pay for it.”
The most likely reason Oberstar, Mica, DeFazio, and Duncan said nothing about how this $500 billion boondoggle will be paid for is because they don’t know. Worse, they probably couldn’t care less. Oh sure, all would undoubtedly protest such a characterization vehemently, but the facts speak otherwise. Spending keeps going up, as does the government’s deficit and the national debt. But congressmen like these four keep piling on additional spending with hardly even any lip service for the idea of how it will be paid for when the bills come due. And by the way, the Transportation Trust Fund that is supposed to pay for highway construction and maintenance went bust last year, requiring an $8 billion bailout. Another $15 billion bailout will likely be needed this year. So, as TCS put it, “we’re supposed to buy the wink and a nod that says we’ll find a way to pay for it later?”
This is not Oberstar’s first appearance at the announcement of a transportation spending bill celebration. Four years ago when Republicans controlled Congress, the committee chairman was Rep. Don Young, R-AK. Young and Oberstar jointly presented what at $375 billion was then the largest-ever transportation spending bill. That one was supposedly going to be paid for with a nickel hike in the federal gas tax. But, as Young and Oberstar surely knew, the tax hike proposal was dead on arrival, and Congress ended up passing “only” a $286 billion transportation bill. That one just happened to include the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, as well as thousands of other earmarks. This time around, the bill includes nearly 12,000 earmarks, together worth more than $19 billion. Watching Oberstar, Mica, DeFazio and Duncan, it is indeed difficult to see much difference between the donkeys and the Dumbos.
