Pork Lobbyists
This story about the town of Treasure Island, Florida stinks to high heaven:
Rebuffed on several requests for state and federal financing to help rebuild its crumbling bridge, this small resort town was all but resigned to raising the money by doubling the 50-cent bridge toll, increasing property taxes and issuing bonds.
But in a last-ditch gambit, city officials hired a federal lobbyist who had known the local congressman for four decades. Within weeks, the congressman, Representative C. W. Bill Young, called the mayor to say he had slipped a special $50 million appropriation, known as an earmark, into an omnibus bill.
Glenn Reynolds correctly writes, "We need to change the culture so that communities will be as embarrassed by stories like this as by reports of racism or environmental destruction."
This whole earmark process has gotten out of control. When is Congress going to wake up and realize that?
