The Biggest Earmark in History?
This article is important for at least three points. First it shows how over time public transit becomes increasingly unaffordable and require ever larger subsidies. Second how the system of diverting resources from intended purposes to “pork barrel” bring home the bacon works in Washington. And third, how public transit is really regressive, spending tax money for affluent citizens rather than the other way around as it is touted.
Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) is requesting the House of Representatives to consider an amendment (H.R. 3496, as revised) to the Deep Water Energy Resources Act (H.R. 4761) that would divert $1.5 billion of federal revenues earned through offshore drilling to subsidize the deeply troubled Metro transit system serving the nation’s capital and his congressional district. If enacted, this earmark would be one of the largest ever passed—seven times larger than Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere” and twice as large as Mississippi’s “Train to Nowhere.”
Full story here.