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Jewish World Review Feb. 2, 2005 / 23 Shevat, 5765 Buy a bridge? This $200 Million one isn't for sale — it's being paid for by taxpayers and it leads almost nowhere By John Stossel
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Don Young has a bridge he wants to sell you. It's not the
Brooklyn Bridge, but it's taller. It's not the Golden Gate Bridge, but it's
almost as long. It'll take you to the airport, if you happen to be flying
out of Ketchikan, Alaska.
Not buying? Maybe you are: Don Young is a member of Congress.
Ketchikan, Alaska, is a little tourist town — a very little
tourist town. Only 14,000 people live there, and it has just one main road.
But years ago, Alaska persuaded Congress to build an airport on a nearby
island. The airport has only six or eight flights a day and people get
there by taking a boat ride. The ride takes just seven minutes, and people
love it. One told ABC News, "When people come to Ketchikan, that little
ferry ride is what they remember."
Another, who called the ferry system "just dandy," pointed out a
feature that might endear it to all of us: "It doesn't cost $200 million."
Maybe I should say that's a feature that might endear it to all
of us who don't represent Alaska in Congress, as Don Young, a Republican,
does. Two hundred million dollars is the price tag on the bridge he wants to
build to rescue people from that dandy ferry. Now, some of us are worried
about our taxes being too high. Some of us are worried that the government
may not be able to fund Medicare. Some of us are worried about softheaded
politicians wasting our hard-earned money. In fact, some of us might even
agree with the congressman who said to his colleagues, "If any of you think
1 percent can't be cut out of any part of our budget, you haven't been here
that long, and most of you have been here that long."
That congressman was — you guessed it — Don Young. But he said
that back when the Democrats were in charge. Today, Young is chairman of the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and in control of the big
transportation bills. Now, he no longer sees pork-barrel spending as just a
horrible waste of money. For Don Young, pork can be a wonderful waste of
money.
"Don Young said he stuffed this bill like a turkey and he's
proud of that," says Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense. Ashdown's
organization awarded Young's bridge the Golden Fleece Award, a prize
reserved for what TCS calls "wasteful, ironic or ridiculous" ways to use —
or misuse — the money the government forces us to give it in taxes. "Don
Young has turned into a tax-and-spend Republican," says Ashdown. "He wants
you and me to pay for his bridges to nowhere."
Nowhere? Well, there is that airport, but beyond that, the
island has no roads and is home mostly to trees.
Rep. Young says the bridge is worth the price because it would
create jobs in Alaska. But that's just politicians' folly because the $200
million would create more jobs if it were left with the people who made the
money in the first place, instead of being taken from them by the
government. And in any case, an economist who studied the matter for the
state says that once the construction workers finished their work and went
home, the bridge would probably create about 40 new jobs. Two hundred
million dollars for 40 jobs is $5 million per job. I hope they're great
jobs.
Young wouldn't talk to me about this. Maybe he's too busy
bringing home even more money for Alaskans. His state is one of the least
populated in America, but he has helped get it more pork dollars than any
other state but one. Some of that pork, like the Ketchikan bridge, isn't
even popular with the locals. Most of the people ABC News talked to in that
little tourist town with the scenic ferry said they didn't want a bridge.
They gave it descriptions like "a colossal waste of taxpayers' money," "a
boondoggle" and "a rotten idea."
Don Young must think it's a good idea, though. It's so good he
wants to improve on it. He's found another nearly empty piece of Alaska
where there's room for a bridge, and he wants to spend your money to build
one there, too. What's the improvement? This next bridge may cost a billion
dollars.
Give Me a Break.
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