The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Pork-Barrel Stimulus

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The news that Las Vegas is seeking federal money to build the Mob Musuem has raised the issue of whether the stimulus package will amount to one giant pork-barrel spending bill. President-elect Obama has said that, "We don't want is this thing to be a Christmas tree loaded up with a whole bunch of pet projects that people have for their local communities." Of course, that's easier said than done. In addition to the Mob Musuem, a group formed to oppose a $20 billion dollar expansion of O'Hare Airport has raised concerns that the federal stimulus will be used for the project, a key goal of Mayor Richard Daley, which Ronald Burris has said he would support. Daley himself has declared that mayors would have to go around the state government run by Blagojevich and take their case directly to Washington. The group, Stop the O'Hare Modernization Program, asserts that the $20 billion proposal would "1) require one-hour bus rides from remote terminals and parking lots, 2) require 45 minute aircraft taxiing times from remote runways to the terminals, 3) result in massive aircraft taxiing traffic jams because of an improperly placed runway 4) result in a several hundred percent increase in runway crossings which endanger public safety." This is something worth keeping an eye on.

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Bob| 1.14.09 @ 9:55AM

So, Philip, who is responsible for this? The FAA has jurisdiction of this project. I don't see any criticism of their part in this. Instead of complaining about pork, you should be complaining about government incompetence -- especially with a Republican administration. Skimming through the FAA documents, I noticed that some of this needed to be done so that O'Hare could land the new generation of aircraft. Furthermore, the estimates of bus rides and taxi times are probably overstated just like Greenpeace would do. Right?

So the important issue here is how do you know what is pork and what isn't? Who does the research? Where are the checks and balances? Your assumption that this is pure pork is just sloppy thinking.

As conservatives, we should not be just automatically blaming opponents, but we should be trying to build better government -- more responsible to the truth, analysis, and facts and less to ideological manipulation.

Kate| 4.15.09 @ 1:36AM

The 2010 defense budget is out, and it is a bit surprising, to say the least. Defense Secretary Robert Gates unveiled an idea to replace defense contractors entirely, with the budget providing for hiring 13,000 civil servants to start with. Granted, part of the cash advance loans of the stimulus was to create jobs, but this creates and takes away simultaneously. Part of the budget is an additional $5 billion for jets, and more funding for the withdrawal from Iraq and increasing activity in Afghanistan. After we heard so many promises to cut government spending, we now are on the hook for more cash advance loans in the defense budget.