Is all pork bad?

[scooterbug44]

If I was in Kansas or Montana and looking for gov't waste the 4 laning of 331 wouldn't even ping my radar.

IMO it's the kind of project that deserves gov't money, as it will markedly improve the lives of tens and hundreds of thousands of citizens - a RARE thing in all those porky gov't projects and campaign favors that benefit a few fat cats.

I definitely understand questioning the project's value to someone outside the area, but that's when I feel that a gov't project w/ similar benefits in that other geographic area keeps it all balanced.

 

[Smiling JOe]

As someone else stated, good, legitimate projects would be approved if they were a single item, rather than being included as pork in a bill like "emergency war funding." I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing if the ear marks WERE taken out. In fact, it might help the happy-spending Congress to tighten up on the wasteful spending.

Back to your question about living in Kansas. If I were a Congressman from Kansas, and it was pointed out to me the current evacuation problems of SoWal, I'd vote to fund the project. Currently, it takes something like 28 hours to evacuate SoWal, and evacuation has to be announced prior to a storms arrival. I think the bridges in WalCo close when wind speeds reach 35 mph. So, the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has to account for the 28+ hours to get all the people off, when trying to determine when the wind speeds from the storm will reach 35 mph in WalCo, and they have to error on the side of caution. In 2007, two major Hurricanes went from a Tropical Disturbance to a Cat 3 Hurricane within 24 hours. If that had happened, and the storm hit SoWal, many people would have been screwed. Can you imagine the pressure of trying to keep everyone safe by making the call for mandatory evacuation 4 days out? We don't even know which way the storm is going 48 hours out. If you give too many, Boy Who Cried Wolf, people become complacent and will die when the storm hits and they don't leave. So as I stated, I think it would be a no brainer. Forget the part about only 15,000 people living in SoWal, because much of Hurricane Season coincides with tourists season, and residents from here, to TX to MI vacation here. Remember the storm which missed us on July 1, 2005. If it was a major storm and was headed this way, while everyone was already here for July 4, many people would be screwed.

Enough about that example, but projects which are worthy would pass without having to be tied into some arbitrary huge bill, like the "energy bill."

EDIT: almost forgot, if that funding project for $7 million dollars, to tear down and rebuild a new County pier in Panama City Beach, came across my desk, it would get rejected in a heartbeat. Most likely the beach restoration project would too.

 

[Bdarg]

As someone else stated, good, legitimate projects would be approved if they were a single item, rather than being included as pork in a bill like "emergency war funding." I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing if the ear marks WERE taken out. In fact, it might help the happy-spending Congress to tighten up on the wasteful spending.

Back to your question about living in Kansas. If I were a Congressman from Kansas, and it was pointed out to me the current evacuation problems of SoWal, I'd vote to fund the project. Currently, it takes something like 28 hours to evacuate SoWal, and evacuation has to be announced prior to a storms arrival. I think the bridges in WalCo close when wind speeds reach 35 mph. So, the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has to account for the 28+ hours to get all the people off, when trying to determine when the wind speeds from the storm will reach 35 mph in WalCo, and they have to error on the side of caution. In 2007, two major Hurricanes went from a Tropical Disturbance to a Cat 3 Hurricane within 24 hours. If that had happened, and the storm hit SoWal, many people would have been screwed. Can you imagine the pressure of trying to keep everyone safe by making the call for mandatory evacuation 4 days out? We don't even know which way the storm is going 48 hours out. If you give too many, Boy Who Cried Wolf, people become complacent and will die when the storm hits and they don't leave. So as I stated, I think it would be a no brainer. Forget the part about only 15,000 people living in SoWal, because much of Hurricane Season coincides with tourists season, and residents from here, to TX to MI vacation here. Remember the storm which missed us on July 1, 2005. If it was a major storm and was headed this way, while everyone was already here for July 4, many people would be screwed.

Enough about that example, but projects which are worthy would pass without having to be tied into some arbitrary huge bill, like the "energy bill."

EDIT: almost forgot, if that funding project for $7 million dollars, to tear down and rebuild a new County pier in Panama City Beach, came across my desk, it would get rejected in a heartbeat. Most likely the beach restoration project would too.

Local pork is good pork. It is the other guy's pork --the pork that we do not understand the need for because it is a local need for the other guys--iss thee pork that we do not think is good pork. That is why the current economic stimulus pork is "good " pork because we all get to indulge in that kind of pork.

A congressman from Nebraska would no more understand the need for widening the 331 bridge than we would understand the need for federal subsidies of federal land to graze his constituent's cattle.

To do each and every expenditure as an individual vote in congress would be impossible. It is hard enough to get them to show up to work as it is. They are always campaigning or fund raising somewhere.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Good point, but isn't Congress (opposite of "progress") intentionally designed to slow things down and prevent out of control Fed Gov't from growing?

 

[Andy A]

Four laning 331 and adding a span at the Clyde Beatty bridge isn't "A bridge to nowhere". Big difference in my opinion. If we did away with all "earmarks" that would be fine with me.

 

[wrobert]

It has not always been a 28 hour evacuation time in sowal. That time has increased due to the allowed increase in density and developement without first making sure the proper infrastructure was in place for the safey of the citizens. But we do have a Bark Park.

I do not see where the rest of the taxpayers of the United States should be forced to fund something that could have been handled locally if government officials had acted responsibly.

 

[scooterbug44]

I do not see where the rest of the taxpayers of the United States should be forced to fund something that could have been handled locally if government officials had acted responsibly.

This criteria would decimate not only the budget, but most of the federal gov't!

(Not that that's a bad thing.)

 

[BeachSiO2]

This criteria would decimate not only the budget, but most of the federal gov't!

(Not that that's a bad thing.)

Actually, the discretionary portion of the budget where most earmarks are included is probably close to 30-40% of the total. The "real" federal budget is in the non-discretionary side and is probably nearing 2+ trillion this year.

 

[Linda]

If last year was the Year of the Pig, this is the Year of the Pigs. The annual tally of Congressional earmarks is out today, revealing that despite calls for a moratorium on pork, the pigs are running wild on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress will spend $17 billion this year on their individual pet projects. Among the questionable outlays of your tax dollars: $3 million for the First Tee, a golfing program for disadvantaged youth (great idea, but can?t Tiger Woods pay for it?); $1 million for weed management in Idaho and $3 million for your friends in the diamond business.

As for the presidential contenders, Hillary Clinton is taking home nearly $300 million worth of pork, while Barack Obama netted nearly $100 million. John McCain, long a vocal opponent of pork, does not request earmarks. [Citizens Against Government Waste and CBS]

 

[JustaLocal]

YES! All pork spending is bad.