Posted on 01/21/2005 10:38:33 AM PST by jb6
Whoever heard of spending $500,000 of American citizens' tax money to build a parking lot for a private business?
Whoever heard of a supposedly conservative congressman perpetrating and defending such an abuse?
And whoever heard of a businessman so brazen as to defend such crass patronage as being "the American system"?
Well, Kentuckians have heard it all now, thanks to U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers.
The Somerset Republican has amassed such power as one of the U.S. House's appropriations "cardinals" that even the blatant misuse of public funds for a private parking lot slides quietly past all the paper tigers who roar incessantly against waste, fraud and abuse.
Or maybe in the heady, anything-goes culture of today's GOP politics, it just seems right that a state with a Hal Rogers Parkway needs a Hal Rogers Parking Lot to go with it.
In any event, Mr. Rogers successfully inserted $500,000 into the latest mammoth spending bill to help out J.D. Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton bought the Lee's Ford Marina at Lake Cumberland in 2003 even though it lacked the lot, and he couldn't find the money for one even though he's given away tens of thousands of dollars to politicians in recent years, including to Rep. Rogers and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees lake operations, didn't request the lot, despite Messrs. Rogers' and Hamilton's assertions that the public desperately needs it.
One Corps official hinted at a plausible reason: the difficulty of explaining such favoritism to the other marina operators who must compete against Mr. Hamilton's government-blessed and subsidized operation.
(Remind us: Which party is it that champions free-market competition and capitalist self-sufficiency over socialism and welfare?)
Mr. Rogers claims that the ends justify the means in this case. He predicts that Mr. Hamilton's good fortune will ripple out to other Kentuckians in the form of more spending by happier tourists.
If so, that ripple better be a pretty big one. Based on the Tax Foundation's estimate that the average Kentuckian pays $4,721 in federal taxes, every cent that 106 hard-working Kentuckians send to Washington this year will go to pay for Mr. Hamilton's asphalt.
They'll understandably expect proof that their money is benefiting somebody besides him and the politicians on whom he does spend his own money.
Around here we call it a Sports Stadium
Pork doesn't just stay on one side of the aisle, it's fully promoted by both.
Such a use of public funds is not unheard of if it is likely that the addition will serve the public good, or result in an increase of revenue sufficient to generate enough additional tax dollars from the improvement's use to offset the cost.
Sports stadiums and civic centers spring to mind. An expansion for a marina might meet this criteria.
More pork chops for votes...
We need more people to do what Mark Sanford did...walk into the statehouse with pigs under each arm in protest of pork-barrel spending!
I might add, however, that usually this is done at a local, county, or maybe even a state level. If these funds came from federal dollars, my acceptance starts to wane.
The porky politicians would like us to believe that, but it isn't true
Egads KY. PING!
Tell that to the competing marina owners mentioned in the article. I think this is what they call, "public-private partnerships". Socialize the cost, privatize the profit.
Over here in the Democratic Party paradise of West Virginia, the 22-year Congressman Mollohan(after his father's 28 years) has, due to to his being ranking Damocrat on House Appropriations, has brought into this district over $25,000,000 (so far) for exactly this same sort of thing. There is a "non-profit" organization which he himself founded and which gets up to $10,000,000 a year for supposed "neighborhood redevelopment". But our neighborhood (average home value $70,000) surrounding their headquarters mansion down the street (average rebuilding cost $887,000) sees none of it. It all goes to Democrat Congressman Mollohan's growing tax-financed little empire. I mean this literally. Compared to that, the $500,000 in the article above is chicken feed.
BLUEGRASS PING
A bad apple in every bunch.
The difference between us and the Dims, is we will, should impeach and bring charges to this character. He should be removed from office, immediately.
With all due respect, if you think Hal Rogers is ever going to be impeached, removed, or charged with anything, you are absolutely crazy.
The Courier Journal wants to "expose" Rogers simply because he is a Republican. That is the obvious. We, however, should distrust Rogers (like many Republicans and Democrats) for his abuse of the U.S. Constitution.
RPL, thanks for pinging everyone. ..your right about Courier JoUrinal or the Lexington Mis-Leader/Fishwrapper.
There is no excuse for pork barrel spending. We already pay our "masters" a hell of a lot more then any serf ever did and these boozos keep spending cash quicker then they can even print it.
I may be naive, but not crazy.
What is crazy is the Republican Party not doing something about this guy, before he ruins the whole party.
Now, that's crazy.
There has to be a way to remove him.
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