Pork Report Exposes $4 Million ‘Polar Express To Nowhere’ (Stevens-R/AK)

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/08/stevens-north-pole/

Pork Report Exposes $4 Million ‘Polar Express To Nowhere’

Yesterday, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released the “Pig Book,” its annual compilation of all the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. This year’s edition contained some welcome news: “thanks to voter outrage and a one-year moratorium imposed by Democrats after taking over Congress,” the “number and cost of pork-barrel projects is way down” after years of record pork-barrel spending.

But the news was not all good. CAGW found that in last year’s defense spending bill, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) included $209,900,000 for projects in his state. The level of spending represented “an increase of 127 percent over the $92,425,000 for Alaska in the fiscal 2006 defense bill.” Stevens is no stranger to pork — he championed the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” and is one the Senate’s most prolific earmarkers. One egregious pork request from Stevens could be called the “Polar Express to Nowhere”:

$4,000,000 for the Northern Line Extension … The Northern Line Extension will provide a direct route from North Pole (pop. 1,778 in 2005) to Delta Junction (pop. 840 in 2000), which is a whopping 82.1 mile drive on one highway between the two villages … The Alaska Railroad Corporation said, “The proposed rail line would provide freight and potentially passenger rail services serving commercial interests and communities in or near the project corridor.”

For a sense of the metropolises that are the “communities in or near the project corridor,” here is a map of the area via Google:



Stevens is no fan of CAGW or their reports. “All they are is a bunch of psychopaths,” he said in 1999. “They are idiots.”

[NanceGreggs]

1. Did Ted write his vitriol in an email ...

... and send it to the "idiots" through the internet tubes?

[zbdent]

2. Why doesn't he use the $200M from his "Bridge to Nowhere"

remember, they canceled the bridge ... but let him have the money anyway ...

[ClintonTyree]

3. Stevens calling ANYONE a "psychopath"...

is a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black. There isn't anyone, in either the House or Senate, that can come close to the maniacal, psychopathic rants and actions of Stevens. He's in a class of his own and crazier than a shit house rat. :silly: