NBC News, Sept. 13: Palin has come under fire in recent days for misleadingly saying she told Congress “thanks but no thanks,” refusing an earmark for a bridge to a sparsely inhabited island in her home state. Independent groups and media fact-checkers have said Palin advocated for the federal earmark before opposing it, only ended after Congress had essentially killed it, and kept the $223 million for the appropriation after the project was killed.
Palin had cut the refrain from her speech during her three-day visit to Alaska. But she came back to it today, citing it as an example of earmark reform she and McCain would push for in the White House.
“I told Congress thanks but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere – that if our state wanted to build that bridge, we would build it ourselves," she said.
Remember the outrage of Mr. and Ms. Inside the Beltway Democrat when it was learned that Governor Sarah Palin's Administration had lobbied Congress to build the Gravina Island Bridge--"The Bridge to Nowhere". Even Mr and Ms. Establishment
Republican could not bear the economic injustice caused by the fact that Alaskans wanted to "provide better service to the airport and allow for development of large tracts of land on the island". After the Liberal "Mainstream" Media sent 100's of reporters to investigate the Palin Administration's desire to build a $398 million transportation system, Alaska changed plans and built a $25 million road to the island. Yes, Mr. and Ms. Establishment Republican, there is no memorial to the "Bridge to Nowhere". It does not exist. Yet, Democrats and Establishment Republicans cling to this ghost in highlighting the hypocrisy of the limited government types. The unpardonable sin.
Where is the outrage from the righteous when Democrats and Democrat Lites on the DC City Council fund the most expensive urban light rail transportation museum ever created and never to be used in Western civilization? While radio silence has been instituted by Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration, it appears that the DC Government will cancel its $1.3 Billion light rail project having spent nearly $200 million of a slated $310 million building the "Streetcar to Nowhere". What began as a noble gesture to eradicate poverty by sending a train from Union Station to Barry Farms ends as an expensive lesson in what happens when public intervention is sought to remedy the simplest of problems. On March 6, 2015, the Acting Director of the District’s Department of Transportation, Leif Dormsjo, advised the esteemed City Council that the current $194 million project may never operate. Wait, did someone just rob a bank? No just taxpayers that believed the modern green project gurus had insight that superseded their elders. What a very fancy inoperable museum for visitors to the Nation's Capital to observe. If 194 million visitors over the next 20 years visited the "Streetcar to Nowhere" then, we may recoup our losses. Knowing the Democrat held City Council, we may find a way to go into debt doing that. By the way, after a century, why did our elders replace the streetcar system. Cars and buses are faster, more mobile and not connected to Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory.
Let's play the Democrat game of "how could we have better spent $200 million dollars". According to Cato, it costs over $28,000 annually per pupil for a DC public school education. We missed educating 7,142 children. Using Senator Elizabeth Warren's $22 per hour minimum wage, the DC government could have employed 4,371 welfare mothers to work at Walmart for a year. We missed taking 7,475 children out of poverty. Mayor Bowser says she wants to find $100 million for Affordable Housing. We found it almost twice over. At a cost of $4,318 per person, the DC Government could have provided outpatient drug treatment to 46,317 persons. WOW! A health plan and social justice program that would not need a Republican's vote! DC Employees, as many as 4,000 of you could have continued receiving the DC Employee First Time Home Purchase Tax Credit for 5 years. Yeah, 12 council members including Muriel Bowser chose streetcar funding over your tax breaks. They knew you would not mind. Speaking of government employees, we must always be vigilant in DC. Anything could happen! ISIS, Climate Change Disasters, Hillary Needing A New Server, ie. ANYTHING! Why not prepare? At an average cost of $37,000 per annual starting salary, DC could have hired 5,405 police, fire and emergency medical technicians. What a loss! Government waste and abuse only matters when blaming the GOP. It would be great if every representative that voted for this Dodo Bird project suffered a pay deduction to cover the cost. However, they would probably pass a new tax to fill their newly emptied coffers. Vote Them Out and Keep the Streetcar to Nowhere Museum so that our grandchildren will see what trolley folly their tax dollars afford.
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