There is no better symbol for the big-government excess of the Bush-era Republican Party than the 2005 highway transportation bill. Clocking in at 1,752 pages, the $286.4 billion piece of legislation wasn’t even made public until just hours before it was brought to a vote.

Despite being the then-most expensive domestic infrastructure plan in U.S. history, the bill sailed through both chambers of Congress (412-8 in the House, 91-4 in the Senate) thanks in large part to the 6,376 earmarks tucked inside. Alaska’s $200 million Bridge to Nowhere was just one of those projects.