If you ever ask yourself how one of the richest countries in the world can have a crumbling infrastructure, you need look no further than our elected officials for the answer. Last month I wrote an article rebutting liberals who blamed the collapse of Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis on Republicans who lowered taxes. I reminded readers that at the time of the bridge’s collapse, Minnesota was operating with a $2.1 billion surplus, so it was not lack of revenue that was at fault, but poor spending.

The fact of the matter is, no politician recieves gratitude from the voters for getting his or her home state X amount of dollars to repair existing infrastructure. Generally voters are not even aware their state recieved such funds, which makes it a low priority for Congress. New projects however are a different story. The Congressman who obtains $1 billion for his home state to build a new bridge, or newsports stadium, appears at ground breaking ceremonies, and recieves alot of positive press. This is good politics, but bad business.

USA Today had an article yesterday regarding the transportation and housing bill which was approved on Wednesday. The recently approved bill contains $8 billion in pork including $2 billion “for pet projects that include a North Dakota peace garden, a Montana baseball stadium and a Las Vegas history museum”.

The Federal Aviation Administration, for example, had to delay updating high-priority air-traffic control towers in favor of lower priority facilities requested by legislators, the inspector general found.

The report — requested by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a vocal critic of earmarks — does not name the airports.

After the Minneapolis bridge collapse last month, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and others pointed out that Congress for years failed to fund repairs on scores of “structurally deficient” bridges even as lawmakers earmarked money for projects such as the “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska.

Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has proposed a temporary 5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase that he said would raise $25 billion over three years to help reduce the backlog of critical bridge repairs. Among Oberstar’s earmarks in the House transportation bill is $250,000 for a bike trail in his district, which he has defended as legitimate. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Sen. Patty Murray, the Washington state Democrat who chairs the subcommittee that drafted the $106 billion transportation and housing bill, defended the bill and pointed to insertion this week of an additional $1 billion for bridge repairs.

Coburn’s staff identified 500 earmarks in the bill, totaling $2 billion, that were publicly disclosed under new rules designed to shed some light on the practice.

“No one in America seriously believes that bike paths, peace gardens and baseball stadiums are more important national priorities than bridge and road repairs,” Coburn said.

Coburn and a handful of other lawmakers routinely try to strip bills of earmarks, only to see colleagues crush them with bipartisan efficiency.

On Tuesday, Coburn offered an amendment prohibiting spending on earmarks until every structurally deficient bridge was fixed. It lost, 82 to 14.

The bill, which President Bush has threatened to veto, must now be reconciled with the House-approved version. That measure contains, among other earmarks, money for a California mule and packer museum.

The issue of earmarks is not a partisan problem, Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty of throwing away tax payer money on projects which are not necessary. Those who still believe our crumbling infrastructure is caused by low taxes are only fooling themselves.

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Congress, Taxes