We Can’t Afford the High Price of Earmarks
I get studies from the Heritage Foundation on a fairly regular basis. Friday afternoon’s email caught my attention more than most, though. This study is why:
Recent projections by the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office reveal that the highway trust fund will run out of money during FY 2009. Unless the fund is replenished soon, federal spending on highways could decline significantly as the fund reverts to a spend-as-you-earn basis until a permanent remedy is enacted. Until then, one solution is to re-concentrate the fund’s focus on highway investment and safety by abandoning the many low priority and non-transportation diversions that now encumber the federal program.[1]
The Democratic majority will instantly demand passage of Jim Oberstar’s gas tax increase. I doubt it’ll make it that far (Senate Republicans would likely filibuster it) but if it gets to President Bush’s desk, he’ll certainly veto the bill.
As with most things, it isn’t that there isn’t enough revennue. It’s that there isn’t any spending discipline. It’s apparent, too, that Congress hasn’t prioritized their spending. They’ve focused their spending on earmarks, aka corruption magnets, aka re-election slush funds, rather than focusing spending on high priority items. If, and hopefully when, a McCain-Palin administration starts, rest assured that they’ll quickly restore order.
The pending deficit is a consequence of flaws in the most recent highway reauthorization bill (SAFETEA-LU) enacted into law in August 2005 covering all federal highway and transit spending until September 2009. In an effort to provide funding for the more than $24 billion worth of earmarks included in SAFETEA-LU, Congress authorized levels of spending well in excess of the fuel tax revenues expected to flow into the trust fund, thereby drawing down the fund’s balance to support the excess spending. Although the leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) hoped that the fund’s balance would be sufficient to make it through the current reauthorization period, many independent transportation analysts doubted that would happen, and their dire projections have been proven correct.
As I said earlier, the problem isn’t on the revenue side. The problem is that too many politicians, from both sides of the aisle,view the transportation bill as their re-election trust fund. This CBS article tells us everything we need to know about the legislators’ excesses:
Taxpayers for Common Sense, which lists 6,361 of these projects valued at $23 billion, and other watchdog groups say such projects are wasteful, handed out as political rewards.
If ever We The People needed a reminder of the excessive government spending, this should suffice. It’s uconscienable for these porkmeisters to belly up to the trough like this. We have serious problems with our nation’s bridges. They should be our first priority. Our roads need repairing. They should be our next highest priorities.
Instead of those priorities, porkmeisters like Rep. Jim Oberstar and Don Young load these bills up with bike trails and bridges to nowhere. These gentlemen (I’m using the term exceptionally loosely) had better get used to having their PorkTransportion Bill rejected if they lard it up like that again. That sort of thing won’t be tolerated by a McCain-Palin administration. That’s the sort of thing that’ll get rejected in half a heartbeat.
Technorati Tags: Gas Tax, Tax Increases, Transportation Bill, Highway Trust Fund, Earmarks, Jim Oberstar, Don Young, OMB, CBO, John McCain, Sarah Palin, President Bush, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
September 7th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
“Americans are hurting in a way they haven’t in a long time.” (McCain, 9/7/08, “Face the Nation”
Yes, that’s true. Ever since GW took over an economy that was tanking with the former indicted prez at the helm, and then took the 9/11 hit.
But the prez only sets policy, he doesn’t actually say where the money goes. Billy Bub was no more responsible for his tanked economy than GW is for this one.
Can you say, “It’s the spending, Stupid!” If the donk veep candidate wants to go after GW and Cheney for lying, he’d better look out for himself and his fellow congresscritters, because the lies they’ve told the public about getting the budget under control ARE just as big, more numerous and just as devastating as any the Executive MAY have told in the last 8 years.