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Robert Byrd's Highways to Nowhere:
Government pork hasn't made West Virginia prosperous.
Wall Street Journal ^
| 7/10/10
| BRIAN BOLDUC
Posted on 07/10/2010 10:24:03 AM PDT by rhema
click here to read article
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1
posted on
07/10/2010 10:24:08 AM PDT
by
rhema
To: rhema
If W. Virginia had ever become prosperous it wouldn’t have voted for Robert Byrd!
2
posted on
07/10/2010 10:27:13 AM PDT
by
SWAMPSNIPER
(The Second Amendment, A Matter Of Fact, Not A Matter Of Opinion)
To: rhema
Byrd and all liberals could reverse the course of poverty, urban violence and single parent families simply by reversing or even heavily curtailing the flow of Johnson era “Great Society” programs.
I have never in my life been more certain of my conservative principles than I was sitting on a mass transit train over Atlanta and seeing impoverished housing projects as far as the eye could see.
3
posted on
07/10/2010 10:32:24 AM PDT
by
Artemis Webb
(DeMint 2012)
To: Artemis Webb
well...Byrd COULD have...sorry for the present tense on the dear senator.
4
posted on
07/10/2010 10:33:23 AM PDT
by
Artemis Webb
(DeMint 2012)
To: rhema
Government spending does not help the economy
5
posted on
07/10/2010 10:38:07 AM PDT
by
GeronL
(http://libertyfic.proboards.com <--- My Fiction/ Science Fiction Board)
To: rhema
Why would someone call US 50, Route 50?
6
posted on
07/10/2010 10:43:23 AM PDT
by
Mark was here
(It's either Obama or America. There cannot be both.)
To: rhema
Speaking of highways to nowhere, here's a 2006 map of desired highway construction projects for the Feds, designed to help NAFTA.
I don't know if Byrd was losing his touch by then, but check out Georgia's share of the highways.
BTW, Gov. Perry in Texas almost lost his governorship by pushing the Texas part of the corridor.
7
posted on
07/10/2010 10:47:04 AM PDT
by
Richard Kimball
(We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
To: rhema
What’s worse, pork projects rarely include the costs of long-term maintenance. Hence, the locals are stuck forever with the maintenance costs for built structures whose economics were dicey from the beginning — further draining life from the real economy.
8
posted on
07/10/2010 10:50:48 AM PDT
by
AZLiberty
(Yes, Mr. Lennon, I do want a revolution.)
To: rhema
It never gets pointed out that if State and local pols wouldn’t waste the money they take from taxes to spend that pork would not be necessary. Pork means that your politician has wasted your local tax dollars and needs to borrow from the Federal gov’t who wasted your Federal tax dollars.
9
posted on
07/10/2010 10:59:41 AM PDT
by
ReneeLynn
(Socialism is SO yesterday. Fascism, it*s the new black. Mmm Mmm Mmm.)
To: SWAMPSNIPER
If W. Virginia had ever become prosperous it wouldnt have voted for Robert Byrd!
You nailed it. And I'd add that any state that could put Robert Byrd into office over and over WILL NEVER become prosperous! Pork never leads to prosperity for the general society. Good and smart people don't vote for clowns and buffoons like R. Byrd. I hope West Virginians will elect a better Senator. I won't hold my breath.
10
posted on
07/10/2010 11:08:56 AM PDT
by
truthguy
(Good intentions are not enough.)
To: truthguy
Most of Appalachia was purposely turned into a dependency long ago. My family settled in S.W. Virginis in the 1750s, proud, resourceful people. My line broke off, moved to Georgia just before 1800. I’ve got cousins up in the mountains who are foaming commies, hooked on the koolaid, in spite of some of them being well educated.
11
posted on
07/10/2010 11:57:13 AM PDT
by
SWAMPSNIPER
(The Second Amendment, A Matter Of Fact, Not A Matter Of Opinion)
To: rhema
With all due respect to our West Virginia FReepers, but whenever I drive through the state, I simply get depressed thinking about how dependent and downtrodden the general population seems to be.
To: Richard Kimball
Perry was trying to sell off 35 to a foreign toll road company and he will do the same thing again once he gets elected. He is just another Rino like that Daniels clown in Indiana.
To: Mark was here
“Why would someone call US 50, Route 50?”
For the same reasons they called US 66 Route 66,
14
posted on
07/10/2010 12:05:18 PM PDT
by
bwc2221
To: rhema; SWAMPSNIPER; Artemis Webb; GeronL; Mark was here; Richard Kimball; AZLiberty; ReneeLynn; ...
This is a great, great article. When it came to pork-barreling, I always instinctively knew that federal largesse could never substitute for a viable local economy but I didn’t know enough to put it into words.
15
posted on
07/10/2010 12:14:25 PM PDT
by
sinanju
To: sinanju
16
posted on
07/10/2010 12:21:47 PM PDT
by
GeronL
(http://libertyfic.proboards.com <--- My Fiction/ Science Fiction Board)
To: sinanju
Wealth is only created when you increase the value of materials or effort. Mine some ore, make some steel, use the steel to make a car. Plant a seed, sell tomatos, you’ve created wealth. Most of the pork is good for visual effect only.
17
posted on
07/10/2010 12:22:06 PM PDT
by
SWAMPSNIPER
(The Second Amendment, A Matter Of Fact, Not A Matter Of Opinion)
To: sinanju
Bird was doing this all over the state of West Virginia, he just about had Hwy 19 turned into an interstate, he spend billions on that road. But the West Virgina toll road is the roughest damn road you have ever driven on, on second thought, they run a tie with parts of New Jersey and New York, and they charge you to beat you to death.
To: rhema
At one time and another I’ve pretty much driven all over West Virginia.
I am amazed at the number of “projects,” monuments, statues, buildings, highways, etc. that honor Robert Byrd. It really is outsized.
He may have gotten billions in pork for WV. IMHO, they have little to show for it.
19
posted on
07/10/2010 12:50:30 PM PDT
by
upchuck
(This November, we MUST win by more votes than they can cheat by. h/t to originalbuckeye)
To: bwc2221
For the same reasons they called US 66 Route 66.
I thought of Route 66 but isn't that more of an exception, because of some song? Do the local folks in West Virginia call it Route 50 or US 50? In the Detroit area try telling someone to take Route 24.
20
posted on
07/10/2010 1:30:40 PM PDT
by
Mark was here
(It's either Obama or America. There cannot be both.)
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