California Conservative

It seems that Jim Oberstar has finally gotten religion in the aftermath of the I-35W bridge collapse. As Kathy Kersten points out, that wasn’t always the case. Here are some of Kathy’s particulars:

“If you’re not prepared to invest another five cents in bridge reconstruction and road reconstruction, then God help you,” he said after the bridge collapse.

Polls suggest that ordinary folks aren’t convinced of a divine mandate for higher taxes. Most likely, they’re skeptical about how our pols are stewarding current transportation funds.

Oberstar is Exhibit A. He’s long been well-positioned to help steer funds toward bridge safety, and has known of the seriousness of the problem since he held hearings on bridge conditions 20 years ago, he says. But he’s had other priorities.

For example, on July 25, a week before the bridge collapse, Oberstar issued a press release announcing his latest coup for Minnesota.

He had obtained more than $12 million for his home state in a recently passed House transportation and housing bill. Commuter rail was the big winner, getting $10 million. The Cambridge-Isanti Bike/Walk Trail got $250,000, and the KidsPeace Mesabi Academy in Buhl got $150,000. Only $2 million went for meat-and-potatoes road improvements.

Not a penny was slated for bridge repair.

Ouch. That’ll sting a bit. We learn two things from Kathy’s column: (a) that Jim Oberstar, like all Democrats faced with a new challenge, proposes a ‘cure’ by raising taxes and (b) that Jim Oberstar doesn’t think about making better use of the money already available when seeking a solution. Let’s deal with the second observation first.

Rep. Oberstar’s actions tell us where his priorities lie. He’s represented MN-8 in the House for 30 years. He’s accumulated alot of influence in that time. By diverting funds from the Highway Trust Fund to build bike trails, we know what his priorities are. Unfortunately for us, his priorities don’t fit our needs. That’s unacceptable and we demand better.

I don’t even think that longtime legislators think about establishing a priority system until a crisis hits. Even then, I think they don’t establish a worthwhile priority list. I blame part of that on their repulsion of things like cost-benefit analyses. Political consideration is put ahead of the people’s needs. Getting re-elected is their highest priority.

Legislators like Oberstar don’t think of earmarks for low priority items as wasteful spending. They think of them more as symbols of their importance. They view them as part of their legacy. (Robert Byrd is the man with the ‘biggest’ legacy in the Senate, with half of the public buildings in West Virginia seemingly named after him.)

As for the first point, I’ve yet to meet a Democrat that doesn’t reflexively doesn’t think that raising taxes isn’t the first option. As I’ve said before, I’m tired of being thought of as a politician’s ATM machine, with an unlimited balance on hand at all times. Last summer, Mike Hatch criticized Tim Pawlenty for not funding the state’s priorities, then said that he would fund these things properly without raising taxes. As I said here, I didn’t see any reason to believe that he wouldn’t instinctively raise taxes. That belief was proven right during this last legislative session, when Democrats went on a tax increasing binge.

In that respect, Jim Oberstar is no different than Mike Hatch or any other DFL legislator. That used to work in the old days but those days have vanished. They’ve vanished because Al Gore’s internet records their voting histories, their voting records. Most importantly, communication between their clients and their office has never been easier. This is a major paradigm shift, one that must be unsettling to oldtimers like Jim Oberstar, David Obey and John Murtha.

Another example of Democrats thinking tax first was provided by Andy this morning:

Out of $3 trillion dollars in the Federal budget, she can’t find any money for bridges?

Nope this morning on FOX9 news from the MN State Fair, she said to raise taxes on people making more than $366,000 and also raise taxes on oil companies.

Until I’m given proof otherwise, I’ll believe that raising taxes is genetic with liberal Democrats. I’m certain that I won’t be proven wrong anytime soon.

Technorati Tags: James Oberstar, David Obey, John Murtha, Earmarks, Bridge Collapse, Mike Hatch, Amy Klobuchar, Tax Increases, DFL

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Domestic Policies, Election 2008, Liberals, Taxes, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.