Hurricane Katrina is going to cost the taxpayers over $100 billion when it's all said and done. Hurricane Rita didn't strike in as populated of an area as it hit the mostly rural Arklatex region, so damage will be minimized. Also the death toll should be far less, which is also good. In that case, we lucked out in that Rita didn't run right up the waterway from Galveston to Houston.
But regardless, I was encouraged to see some thought given to not simply printing more money. A group of Congressman led by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has a very viable solution called "Operation Offset." Basically, it comes down to repealing or slowing the implementation of new spending programs. The recommendations in Title I alone would save $70 billion in 2006, $193 billion by 2010, and $526 billion by 2015. It's money that WOULD NOT come from the pockets of you and I.
And if you dig deeper into the report, you'll see where even more cuts can be made, cuts that add up in total to almost $1 trillion (even some military spending cuts.) Some of it is the kind of stuff the "Contract With America" was based on but the Gingrich-era Republicans lost their stomach for after the 1995 budget battle and government shutdown. Amazingly, we all survived it, huh?
The problem is that there's only 100 or so Congressmen ( a group called the Republican Study Committee) behind this. There's too many squishy moderates who don't want to see their favorite pork project go away. Our own Congressman, Wayne Gilchrest, is a Republican who is not a member of the RSC. He's also got a lot of highway bill projects that he brought home listed on his website. Here's a few samples of piggish stuff IMHO:
The Crisfield Ferry project would receive $800,000, to be used for the planning, design, and possible acquisition of land for the purposes of a ferry terminal.
If you're going to link up the Eastern Shore with the rest of the state, I think it would be far better to build a bridge in the Dorchester County area. A ferry can only serve a limited number of vehicles and is subject to weather conditions to a far larger degree than a bridge.
The bill also includes funding for several scenic trails in the 1st District. In Centreville, $305,600 was earmarked for design and engineering of the Queen Anne’s County Cross Island Trail, which will be a bicycle and pedestrian trail on a converted rail line.
In Chestertown, $240,000 was set aside for planning the Chestertown Trail, which will be a bike and pedestrian trail linking Wilmer Park to Worton.
In Anne Arundel County, the bill includes $1.2 million for the Broadneck Trail, a component of the American Discovery Trail. This funding would pay for part of the construction of the 3 ¼ mile segment from Sandy Point State Park to Green Holly Drive and College Parkway.
It also includes $800,000 to construct the South Shore Trail from Annapolis to Odenton and another $800,000 to build the trail from Maryland Route 3 at Millersville Road to I-97 at Woorbury.
Wouldn't all of these projects more properly fall under the purview of the state government? I know, it's "only" $3,345,600, but that's money out of our pockets to satisfy a very small portion of the population that actually uses these trails. Now figure all 435 Congressmen have a similar list and you can see where the dollars add up.
(Meanwhile, Rep. Gilchrest is attempting to raise the price of your automobile by supporting a stricter CAFE standard for cars, from 25 MPG to 33 MPG over 10 years. This is more government interference in the free market, trying to force people into less safe smaller cars.)
You know, I didn't want to make this into a Gilchrest bashing post, but doesn't it seem that he's become a RINO with all the pork, the support for CAFE standards, and favoring a repeal of "don't ask don't tell"? I may just have to go to his "town meeting" on October 3rd in Hebron, 6 p.m., at the Rockawalkin Community Hall, 6772 Rockawalkin Road. (Is Rockawalkin a cool name or what?)
I'll go and take notes and I'm betting a blog post is in the offing - once I call my daughter and wish her a happy birthday that night!
So it may be a couple busy Monday nights in a row for me as I have a WCRC meeting this coming Monday night as well. But that's quite all right since I don't really follow Monday Night Football until baseball season is over anyway.
