Hill brings home the pork by taking other people's bacon
Yesterday's C-J has an article on spending items sought by Baron Hill.
WASHINGTON -- For the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, Indiana's U.S. House members have gotten $147.7 million in individual requests and $26.7 million in joint requests inserted into 12 spending bills that have passed the House. (The bills must still be reconciled with Senate versions and signed by President Bush. The Senate has not completed as many spending bills as the House.) Rep. Baron Hill, a Democrat who represents Southern Indiana's 9th District, has $9.8 million, plus $2.15 million in joint requests.
• $2.1 million to the Ohio River Greenway Development Commission for a riverfront roadway and other projects.
So, people in Northern Colorado would pay for a riverfront roadway in Southern Indiana.
• $1.25 million to Harrison County to connect Ind. 337 and Ind. 62.
Money would be taken from people in Richmond County, GA to pay for a local road in Harrison County, IN.
• $1 million to the Clark County Airport for a runway extension and $150,000 to the DuBois County Airport Authority for airport upgrades.
People who live near the Muskegon County Airport in Michigan would pay for improvements to airports in Clark and DuBois County.
• $500,000 to Charlestown for a water-treatment facility.
Paychecks for people in Brattlesboro, VT would reduced to pay for this.
• $375,000 to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour to expand the emergency department.
People in Snook, TX will help pay for this.
• $250,000 to Columbus for a senior-citizen employment center.
• $250,000 to Next Wave Systems of Pekin for secure wireless devices and sensors.
• $200,000 to the Bloomington Hospital Foundation for regional health-information organization.
Huh?
• $100,000 to Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana-Southeast Region for an early-college and middle-college program.
• $75,000 to Indiana University's nursing school for human-simulation technology and equipment.
• $75,000 to Indiana University Southeast's nursing school for the same purpose.
People in Tombstone, Arizona will pay to help educate the citizens of Indiana.
• $56,000 to the New Albany Police Department for an automated fingerprint-identification system and $11,000 to the Sellersburg Police Department for security cameras and door locks.
People in Detroit will help pay for better security in New Albany and Sellersburg.
And so on...
Government is involved in far too much. Beyond that, why is the Federal government involved in so much? Instead of sending money to Washington-- so they can take a cut and send it back to us with strings attached-- why don't we deal with state issues with state resources and local issues with local resources?
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 10:20 AM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
There is an important flipside to Baron Hill's pork-barrel grab for southern Indiana (because many southern Hoosiers might find it a good idea). For every prok barrel project that the southern benefit from, they are gored for 10,000 others. When the system is a game like this where the members of Congress seek to rob the nation at-large this way, you're going to pay an awful price. There are 434 other members of Congress, after all. So the House Rep in northern Colorado (from Eric's example) is getting even for Hill's theft for the greenway. Etc., etc. This is dog-eat-dog at its' worst- a pure drain on the American people.
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