Alaskans sure do like bridges. Frustrated in their attempt to build one bridge to nowhere, they are not attempting to build a bridge to almost nowhere:
n 2005, Congress defeated the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere†earmark spearheaded by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), which would have spent $200 million connecting mainland Alaska to an island home to 50 people.
Roll Call reports today that members of Alaska’s congressional delegation are persisting in making another bridge in the Alaskan tundra. Their pet project this time is for a bridge in the sparsely populated Knik Arm region, and the earmark “could mean a significant windfall for a number of people close to the Congressional delegation…some of whom purchased land in the area.â€
Both Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK) have several relatives and former aides who own land or stock in companies with property in the Knik Arm region. Most notorious, however, is Stevens, whose underlings stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bridge:
Wouldn’t it be cheaper for us taxpayers if Congress just set aside a couple of million dollars a years for the “Ted Stevens/Lisa Murkowski slush fund” and let them just give the money to anyone they choose? The last bridge was going to cost $200 million. If this bridge is comparable then it is going to cost us about $198 million dollars extra just to feed Stevens’ insatiable appetite for taxpayer’s dollars. That’s a lot of money just to maintain the fiction that he and his cronies aren’t corrupt.
Note to Democrats: You’re in charge now, and these people are all Republicans. A chance to do well by doing good.
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