Say Anything Blog

Excellent comment!  I would only be interested in seeing the earmarks totaled against the total amount of the ear marked spending against the total, including those that appear “frivolous” versus needed ones.  For example, in your Taxpayers for Common Sense, a number of the high-ticket items seem pretty reasonable:

$3,200,000 Construction and right-of-way acquisition for interchange at TH65 and TH242
$13,000,000 Lyndale Avenue Bridge, Richfield
$4,480,000 Polk, Pennington, Marshall County 10-Ton Corridor in Northwestern Minnesota

I agree with your overall point, by the way.  But it’s important to get the details right too.

I’ll point out that none of the items I selected (and many of them in the link were of this sort) were of the form of a greasing of a local contractors pockets.  As I’ve explained in the past, ear marks originate in funding requests from local communities (by which I mean, local governments, colleges and universities, businesses, advocacy groups, etc.) to local congresscritters, who then prioritize the requests based on their available resources.

I can assure you it wasn’t the esteemed congressman from Alaska who was responsible for any of these plus-ups!

It seems to me that all the spending on social engineering schemes would be better spent on real infrastructure needs.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

I guess that’s my point.  Many of those projects are addressing infrastructure issues.

Well, they claim to, but I think results should be demonstrated before funding continues or before enlarging the scope of social engineering schemes.
A little science to balance out the emotional stuff.
“It’s for the children!”, for example.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

Right, I think you and I are on the same page.  But I think the argument I put forward, that we shouldn’t be spending any money on amusement parks and pack mule museums if our roads and bridges are in need of repair, is a good one.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

You do realize that most of these “intersection improvement” projects come as a result of safety studies, right? Same goes for things like the bridge construction and repair projects.  There is usually an economic study that is included in the decision making process that leads to the new projects.

Obviously, we shouldn’t spend $3.2 million “for the children,” unless we can show some improvement, like providing after school recreational alternatives to gang membership.

Rob:

Right, I think you and I are on the same page.  But I think the argument I put forward, that we shouldn’t be spending any money on amusement parks and pack mule museums if our roads and bridges are in need of repair, is a good one.

Not unless a social-economic argument can be made, in any case.  You can’t just spend resources on maintenance and infrastructure, you need to allocate funds for things like community improvement, since these improve the quality of life in the community, and often bring far more revenue over their lifetime than they cost.  A new state park is a good example lf that (assuming it opens up an area previously unavailable to tourism and recreation.)

The bridge to nowhere is a perfect example, not because it went nowhere—-it was a tourist trap basically—-but because the cost of construction likely exceeded the amount of new revenue that would be generated by it, making it a poor choice for spending tax revenue.

Rob: Absolutely!  As you may know, I’m not much of a fan of govt spending.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

I love the bobblehead Rob on the SayAnything Alerts panel.  Too bad they don’t offer these in those online merchant stores or I’d buy one (hm…  second marketing idea in one day).

LMAO.

Carrick, one of my best friends is an engineer who works on traffic issues, among other things, so I’m aware (albeit second hand) of the process.

What really cheeses me off is the idea of amusement park pork being in a transportation bill.  If we want to appropriate federal funds for an amusement park (and museums and stuff) let’s vote on it by itself.  Or lump it together in an omnibus appropriation for parks and museums across the nation.

Let’s not hide it in a bill with funding meant for bridges and roads.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

as a result of safety studies,

Absolutely! After so many fatalities or serious injuries projects seems to get pushed right along. Something that is unknown to most people is if there is an outstanding lawsuit for some (not all) intersection or project that will delay the project. It’s a way of not influencing any outcome of the case.

But I think the argument I put forward, that we shouldn’t be spending any money on amusement parks
and pack mule museums if our roads and bridges are in need of repair, is a good one.

I was thinking of the so-called “War on Poverty”($11 trillion and counting), but those examples are also good.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

Not unless a social-economic argument can be made, in any case.  You can’t just spend resources on maintenance and infrastructure, you need to allocate funds for things like community improvement, since these improve the quality of life in the community, and often bring far more revenue over their lifetime than they cost.

Maybe this is true and maybe it isn’t.  Here in Minot, we’ve spent a ton of money on a heritage park that, frankly, hasn’t done us much for tourism at all.  I’m not against that kind of spending per se, but I take it on a case by case basis.

But can we at least agree that such spending needs to be part of it’s own package and not tucked into transportation bills?  If we’re going to improve parks and museums, let’s do a omnibus spending bill to do that which is separate from necessary maintenance items.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Rob, A million dollars for a 14 mile trail extension? Where is this located anyway?

I love the bobblehead Rob on the SayAnything Alerts panel.  Too bad they don’t offer these in those online merchant stores or I’d buy one

That’s a new thing.  I’m going to do a post on it tomorrow.  Basically some local software dudes I know are putting together a new product, and I’m helping them promote it.

It’s pretty cool.  Whenever a new post goes up here on SAB it’ll do a pop-up.  You can also add other sites (Fox News, CNN, etc.) and eventually you’ll be able to add in feeds from where you want.

You guys should download it and check it out.  I know everyone is different in how they read their blogs and news sites, but this one is pretty unique.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

LMAO.

Hey, don’t laugh.  My wife said it looks cute…

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Rob, that’s a good point, but there are limitations on how earmarks are currently created.  Most earmarks are inserted by members participating in a particular appropriations committee.  Sometimes, a quid pro quo occurs, and two congressmen insert earmarks for each other in more appropriate legislative bills, but that’s usually not how it currently works.  Even that has its faults, because you are removing the person responsible for writing the earmark from the bill itself, which can either lead to the ear mark getting lost (which assuming it is needed, is inefficient) or because the ear mark gets duplicated in different legislation (seen that happen too).

Perhaps if we opened up the process to include more transparency, and gasp more equity in how the dollars get distributed across states, this would be unnecessary and the money would get more wisely spent, with less abuse by corrupt congressmen.  I’m not sure what that system would look like, but as I said, I’m not a big fan of congress as a body making these kind of decisions for local communities, and I do think that the republicanized decision making is a better way to go…

Nah, it’s cool, Rob.  Just wish I could buy the bobble head for my son, is all!

Nah, it’s cool, Rob.  Just wish I could buy the bobble head for my son, is all!

Hell, if they were available I’d get one for myself. Because I’m that conceited.

I didn’t come up the the bobblehead, by the way.  You’ll have to thank the folks at Super Alerts for that.

but as I said, I’m not a big fan of congress as a body making these kind of decisions for local communities, and I do think that the republicanized decision making is a better way to go…

One wonders if it wouldn’t be wiser to just make a federal appropriation to each state in proportion to that state’s population (or maybe the number of roads and bridges it has?) and then just let the local authorities spend the money.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Wow, the lefties in Mass are really bringing home the pork and bacon…

Check out:
Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck
Goon’s World

$13,000,000 Lyndale Avenue Bridge, Richfield

I’m quite familiar with this one being that I only live blocks away.  Richfield and Bloomington, MN (where I live) have been in a multi-year process of improving roads a block off of I-494 through the area in an effort to get local traffic off of I-494.  It does seem to be working.  Part of that is that some bridges need to be rebuilt as they can’t handle current traffic needs.

And one other point on the Lyndale Ave Bridge.  It’s going to have to be rebuilt when they redo the I-494/I-35W Interchange.  That interchange can’t really handle the traffic traffic that flows through it now.  The Lyndale Ave Bridge is going to be rebuilt to fit in with the eventual rebuilding of the I-494/I-35W Interchange.

A note on this also.  The Penn Ave Bridge, crossing I-494 on the other side of I-35W from the Lyndale Bridge, was rebuilt in the same form that they’re going to be doing the Lyndale Bridge.  Best Buy wanted the new bridge as they were building they’re new corporate campus at I-494/Penn and they ended up contributing several million for the new bridge to advance the construction.  Granted Richfield did screw over a few other businesses in the area with Eminent Domain doing the Best Buy campus, but that’d be subject matter for another post…

raise taxes!