Bush: $286 billion highway bill (incl. $24 billion in pork) "creates jobs"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Bush says $286bn highway bill creates US jobs
MONTGOMERY, Ill., Aug 10 (Reuters)

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f7ef841a-09d0-11da-b870-00000e2511c8.html

US President George W. Bush signed a $286.5bn highway bill on Wednesday that he said would create new jobs but which critics contend is stuffed with billions of dollars worth of lawmakers’ pet projects.

The legislation funds road and mass transit construction for six years, but also contains $24 billion in “pork” -- special add-ons initiated by members of the Senate and House of Representatives to curry favor in their home districts. “The bill ... is going to help give hundreds of thousands of Americans good paying jobs,” Bush said. “Our economy depends on us having the most efficient, reliable transportation system in the world and if we want people working in America we’ve got to make sure our highways and roads are modern.”

But the measure contains more than 6,300 special projects. They include $231 million for a bridge in Anchorage to be named Don Young’s Way after Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who heads the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and $2.3 million for landscaping along the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California. Alaska, the third-least populated state, got the fourth most money for special projects -- $941 million -- according to an analysis by the government watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Keith Ashdown, the group’s vice president, said Bush should have vetoed the “fiscally irresponsible” bill. “It leaves the nation stuck in traffic gridlock, but greases the wheels of powerful politicians,” Ashdown said. ”This bill is by far the most expensive, wasteful highway bill in the nation’s history.”

[OneTwentyoNine]

1. $2.3 MILLION for landscaping along Ronnie Reagan highway?!?!?

Damn,we're lucky if we get a tree every 10 miles around here. Ronnies highway going to look like a greenhouse for miles and miles??

[stray cat]

2. Anyone can create jobs with 286 Billion

However, jobs should be productive, money should be used efficiently and large corporations shouldn't be the ones getting rich off of it. It is nothing more that corporate payoffs and payoffs for congressman to use to get re-elected.