A tip of the hat to AP's Ben Evans for a story analyzing the conflict when people like Senator Richard Shelby brag about bringing home "pork" and then rant about The Obama Administration building up government debt.
Thanks for deflating all us "weapons of war" folk up here in North Alabama.
Seriously though, the article makes an excellent point.
And towards that end, I am fond of using a phrase that seems quite apropos, and which goes like this... "feeding at the trough of taxpayer largess."
Face it... if anyone gets gummint money, there're gonna be folks that wail about it, no matter what it's used for.
However, on a more broad scope - I am not convinced that selling stuff to the government is a bad idea. I think, however, that it should be tightly regulated... and it already is.
Now, I can tell you this - the writer's characterization that "Huge swaths of downtown are roped off behind orange construction barriers as the government builds a new federal building and remakes the city's streetscape." is a gross mischaracterization at best, and a damn lie at worst. In between? It just ain't true, accurate or whatever stripe you wanna' paint it.
True, there is construction on the courthouse square, but that's local tax dollars, not federal. And, it's mostly completed - which was to replace the deteriorating brick pavers with concrete.
And the other project - near my parish's visitation center - has blocked for several months an approximately one block stretch of winding street. It too - to the best of my knowledge - is using local (primarily) and state (to a much lesser degree, if any) taxes to do significant infrasctructure repair below the road bed, and road improvement afterward.
Again, not federal tax dollars... although this town DOES get its fair share of federal Department of Defense & NASA dollars.
Well now, Tim.
ReplyDeleteThanks for deflating all us "weapons of war" folk up here in North Alabama.
Seriously though, the article makes an excellent point.
And towards that end, I am fond of using a phrase that seems quite apropos, and which goes like this... "feeding at the trough of taxpayer largess."
Face it... if anyone gets gummint money, there're gonna be folks that wail about it, no matter what it's used for.
However, on a more broad scope - I am not convinced that selling stuff to the government is a bad idea. I think, however, that it should be tightly regulated... and it already is.
Now, I can tell you this - the writer's characterization that "Huge swaths of downtown are roped off behind orange construction barriers as the government builds a new federal building and remakes the city's streetscape." is a gross mischaracterization at best, and a damn lie at worst. In between? It just ain't true, accurate or whatever stripe you wanna' paint it.
True, there is construction on the courthouse square, but that's local tax dollars, not federal. And, it's mostly completed - which was to replace the deteriorating brick pavers with concrete.
And the other project - near my parish's visitation center - has blocked for several months an approximately one block stretch of winding street. It too - to the best of my knowledge - is using local (primarily) and state (to a much lesser degree, if any) taxes to do significant infrasctructure repair below the road bed, and road improvement afterward.
Again, not federal tax dollars... although this town DOES get its fair share of federal Department of Defense & NASA dollars.
Oh... I misread the line.
ReplyDeleteThe writer segued into T-Town and poof! There went Huntsvegas!
Oh well.
Now you know the rest of the story! :-)