Saturday, August 22, 2015

Congress Loves Bacon

"Instead of attacking anti-poverty and education programs, libertarians and fiscal conservatives should be working on cutting the pork out of Congressional bills. Taxes wouldn't seem so evil, nor would they be so high, if more money was spent on healthy, effective social programs rather than pet projects of Congresspeople who care more about votes than the good of this country. The money for that bridge [to nowhere] could and should be going to such projects as education reform or health care reform. Or strengthening levees"

I wrote this in 2005. It was about Don Young's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" pork project. Nothing ever changes, does it?

You'd think that the devastation of Katrina would have made this country take a good look at its crumbling infrastructure, wouldn't you? Nope. Ten years later, our roads and bridges are falling apart more than ever, and the GOP Congress cares more about taking health insurance from poor people than anything else. Besides, Katrina only really hurt black people, so who cares, amirite, white people?

I just read a study that said most white people in New Orleans think the city has completely recovered from Katrina, while most black people think that nothing has gotten better. Speaks volumes about suburban isolation. And racial isolation. And just plain stupidity.

How about we stop all this white cat/black cat he-said/she-said bullshit blame game and start caring about things that matter? You want to make America "great again?" Trumpet? How about we get Congress to stop hating poor and minority people long enough to repair our infrastructure before a large number of people die in some kind of collapse?

No comments:

Post a Comment