Bank of Political Works- A Fannie Mae for 'infrastructure.'

Here's a novel idea: Have Congress create a "bank" that could borrow huge sums with only a small federal outlay and would be independent of any political interference. If you believe in this miracle, you probably thought Fannie Mae was a private company that wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime.

We're referring to Washington's latest marketing tool to sell spending to a skeptical public, a new federal "infrastructure bank." For the low, low price of $30 billion or so, President Obama says Congress can conjure hundreds of billions in new "grants and loans" to rebuild "roads, bridges, and ports and broadband lines and smart grids."

The President believes that the economy can be grown, that is to say that real wealth can be created, by breaking a window and then having the government pay someone to replace it. He also advertizes that corruption is something that only happens outside of Chicago.

I cannot imagine the untold mountains of wealth that will go into his cronies’ hands if this is allowed to see the light of day.

All this is going to be is another Federal slush fund that will attempt to circumvent Congress, save Congress Critters in both parties from defending those embarrassing earmarks, fund big projects that benefit Union labor only and have no chance of passing in the House, but will ultimately funnel more funds back into the warchests of those very same career critters in Congress.

A very good example of a project that will likely be funded is the Columbia River Crossing Project between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.

http://www.columbiarivercrossing.org/

This boondoggle is so far away from reality its hard to list all the reasons here. The project is into its second decade of planning, has spent over $130 Million so far and produced absolutely nothing. The latest deadline has slid again for two more years and the Transportation Department just gave them another $5 Million to continue the planning.

It is so controversial that neither State has committed any funds toward building it, and the locals are up in arms over the extreme toll measures that will be imposed in order to control traffic.

This “infrastructure bank” will give Senator Patty Murray cover so that she doesn’t have to fight for an earmark that has no hope of passing the House. This way she can quietly funnel as much money as she wants to the project while trumpeting her role in cutting spending.

This is madness, and there are hundreds of projects just like this all over the Country that will not stand up to the budget process, but could easily be funded out of this slush fund.

Only $30 Billion?? Right. They Government originally promised Medicaire would never cost more than $1 Billion....

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