Oink! Ouch!

No matter how much and what kind of lipstick you put on this pig, it's still a pig! President Bush, who was absent when they discussed Presidential Veto in Government class, signed a $286 Billion Transportation Bill today. Well, what did us taxpayers get for this?

• Alaska got $941 Million (4th), Mississippi got $367 Million (31st)
• Don Young (R-AK) is Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. the Alaska allocation is for a $223 Million, mile long bridge that connects an island with 50 residents to Ketchikan, a town of 8,000 residents on the mainland. In addition, $231 Million is allocated to build a bridge in Anchorage that will be named..are you ready for this?......Don Young's Way! That's not all, $3 Million is set aside to make a film about building bridges in Alaska!

Other Projects having nothing to do with Roads and Bridges.

• Horse Riding facilities in Virginia $600,000
• Snowmobile trail in Vermont $5.9 Million
• Bicycle and Pedestrian trail in Tennessee $532,000
• Day-Care Center and Park-n-Ride facility in Illinois $1.25 Million
• Dust Control mitigation in rural Arkansas $3 Million
• National Packard Museum (remember the Packard?) in Ohio $2.75 Million
• Etc.

Mississippi Projects of note:

• Hwy 82 Bypass $10 Million
• Washington Co. General $1.4 Million
• I-69 $35 Million, plus another $8.3 Million from allocation among six states
• $20.2 Million to widen I-55 in DeSoto County to Tennessee Line
• $26.4 Million to purchase ROW for U.S. 49 from Florence to I-20
• $32 Million to widen State Hwy 57 from I-10 through Van Cleave

You can check out the entire bill allocations at www.taxpayer.net

Speaking of Pork and getting Porked, How about Baxteria! The state gives them $14 Million to pay the extortion money to not move and they reward the state with laying off 60 workers. Dog mentioned in a previous post how he felt about that. Corporate Welfare has got to STOP! A quick ballpark calculation is that is more than $3 Million that Baxteria will save annually in human resource costs. Add to that the $10 Million in loans and $4 Million in grants from the State and I'd say they "made out like bandits" (pun intended).

It was so gratifying that the Guv'ner was able to save Mississippi taxpayers money by getting 20,000 derelicts off the Medicaid rolls. How much do you think that saves? Why doesn't he go after the Medicaid Billing fraud from nursing homes, hospitals, clinics, and doctors? How much do you think that is? Do the people lobby? No. Do the providers lobby? You betcha! Now I am not opposed to making sure only qualified people are receiving Medicaid, but the real abuse and big money is in the fraudulent handling of patient charges.