Virginia Politicians and Highway Pork

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation and had the following to say about Bristol, VA/TN August 18, 2005:

For a good example of the moral perversity of the budget-busting, pork-barrel highway bill, consider what recently happened in Bristol, Virginia. While on his annual statewide “listening tour” across the state, Republican Sen. George Allen proudly told Bristol voters that their local officials were going to receive even more money from Congress than they had requested for the renovation of the local train station.

Rep. Rick Boucher, a Democrat, had requested only $400,000 for the project. Not to be outdone, Sen. John Warner, a Republican, had requested $1 million for the same project. So what did Congress do? It simply combined the two numbers and awarded Bristol officials a grant of $1.4 million. Laughing about the situation, Allen said, “Congress works in mysterious ways. I’ll guarantee they will use this extra $400,000." Extra $400,000? Didn’t Allen actually mean “extra $1 million,” given that Boucher’s request implied that the project could be done for $400,000? Oh well, what’s a million dollars to taxpayers who have trouble saving any money these days?

As he pointed this is indeed a way to purchase votes. While to "simply stuff cash into the hands of individual voters, which would be illegal, they stuff grants of cash into the hands of local public officials and ask their constituents to return them to office so that they can do more of the same." The local politicians rout the funds to their friends and associates in Bristol and Southwest, Virginia, the public sees none of it. As Hornberger says,

The grateful voters from Bristol then clap and happily say, "Thank you, Mssrs. Boucher, Warner, and Allen for having the IRS take our hard-earned money and returning a portion of it to our local public officials to renovate our train station. We are so grateful for what you have done for us. Please do more of it in the future. You are so effective..."

Today in 2008 this nonsense has left Bristol, VA (pop. 17,000) $110 million in debt, and this stupid Train Station still sits empty and unused. Bristol is a welfare basket case.

 

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