It Ain't Hard to Be a Cynic

Well, the Senate got the word--Alaska's "Bridges to Nowhere" may be lost--sort of.

With nationwide scorn on Congress for spending $452 million on two so-called "bridges to nowhere," a Senate committee is trying to erase the two projects from the highway bill Congress passed this summer, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, confirmed Tuesday.

Now read VERY carefully the next paragraph:

Stevens said a Senate appropriations bill now in the works would remove the description, but not necessarily the funding, for the Knik and Ketchikan bridges.

In other words, the Senate may well remove the specific NAMES for the bridges, but not the MONEY.

"That is what we're seeking, at the very least, to take the money that the state would get as (an) allocation, to use it as sees fit," [Sen. Stevens, (R-Pigdom] said.

[Cong. Flake, (R-AZ)] has been pushing a revision that would rescind 10 percent of the highway bill's spending. Like the rumored Senate bill, his proposal would also remove all of the earmark language, but leave the money with the states.

The bridges and the rest of the highway spending are damaging the Republican image of fiscal responsibility, he argues.

"I maintain that we simply can't stand the public relations disaster of funding this many earmarks," he said last week.

States, he said, would welcome the freedom to spend their highway money how they want, he said, even if they only get 90 percent of it.

Young said too many members of Congress have too much at stake in the highway bill to listen to Flake.

"He hasn't got any traction," [Rep] Young (R-Pigdom) told Alaska reporters last week. "He's a dog lying on ice right now: He's scratching a lot but he doesn't go anywhere."

Precisely what we fear, Junior PigMost Republican from Alaska.

HT: Human Events