Posted on 09/05/2005 2:02:03 PM PDT by akdonn
WASHINGTON -- Blame for the hurricane damage in New Orleans is spreading all the way to Alaska. Dozens of newspapers around the country carried an Associated Press analysis late last week asserting that Alaska's clout in Congress was drawing money away from New Orleans. Last year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for New Orleans hurricane and flood programs, AP political reporter Ron Fournier wrote. Congress approved less than half. And yet it funded thousands of pet projects in the transportation bill in July, including two much-mocked bridges in Alaska. "How could Washington spend $231 million on a bridge to nowhere -- and not find $63 million more ... to fully meet the need for hurricane and flood projects in New Orleans?" Fournier asked in the opinion column. The answer, he said, is that Rep. Don Young, chairman of the transportation committee, and Sen. Ted Stevens, a senior member of the appropriations panel, are both Alaskan. "Louisiana's delegation holds far less sway," Fournier wrote. Steve Hansen, a spokesman for Young, called Fournier's correlation "moronic." The funding for Alaska's big bridges is in the highway bill, which is funded by gas taxes. Gas taxes can only be spent on highway and transit programs, Hansen said.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Yeah, the environmentalists call the Knik Crossing a boondoggle just as they called the Trans-Alaska Pipeline a boondoggle back in the 1970's.
With lunacy becoming more and more prevalent in this country, I'm considering a "second career" as a shrink.
This is important. You're pretty much never wrong when you curse Congress. America's only truely criminal class.
Don Young isn't near as effective as Ted Stevens. Stevens is still vigorous, but he isn't getting younger and there is no one in sight who can fill his shoes.
OK-- whoa.... Knik Crossing? Is this going across Knik Arm? From where to where? [I lived in Eagle River for 8 years.]
Meanwhile, how much did N.O. spend on professional sports stadiums while neglecting their own levees?
For more information about this important project: http://www.knikarmbridge.com/
It was only a matter of time before that comment was exploited.
Don Young speaks for me.
Alaska can make up for it. Stop sending the oil in the pipeline overseas.
Thanks for the link. It's a heck of a shortcut! If you don't mind my asking, is this a way to more or less "add on" to Anchorage? I'm guessing that there's not much undeveloped land left in Anchorage proper and that what there is is expensive?
Of course, Anchorage is continuing to grow, but many of the people who work in Anchorage live in the Mat-Su valley. This would shave something like 40 miles from the drive time to Wasilla. It would open up a lot of area for development.
If it is so important, and such a necessity, why can't Alaska and its' residents pay for it?
Are the Dems ready to blame Sen Byrd for spending on roads and bridges in sparsely populated West Virginia?
Don't worry, Pal. We have more than "paid our way;" so many people and Outside interests have for so long just come here long enough to see what they can get for themselves and take elsewhere. (Beginning with the Russians!) Because we have such a small population base, Alaska is only a resource warehouse to the United States. Of course Americans don't want to spend one cent more than necessary to get what we have for them to take.
Who would have ever thought when statehood was being considered during the 1950s that our three elected members would in 2005 become a powerhouse in Congress?
So it's o.k. to plunder the national treasury for the benefit of so few?
Plunder? Yeah, we know about that--the U.S. Government has done it to Alaska, and we're just getting a little bit back.
I'm not sure you have the imagination it would require to understand the value of Alaska to America given those kinds of comments.
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