As part of his latest “stimulus” scam, President Obama argues that the federal government should spend more money on infrastructure.
Yet there is widespread evidence that politicians use such projects to squander money – often in exchange for contributions from contractors and construction unions.
There’s a very unfortunate example of this phenomenon in my backyard. Fairfax County is part of a $7 billion (that’s not a misprint) project to extend the metro (subway) system to Dulles Airport.
The project is way over budget (which happens 99 percent of the time with government spending projects).
But what’s really remarkable is that supporters of the boondoggle now admit they lied to taxpayers.
What’s noteworthy isn’t the lie. Heck, they always lie and underestimate costs (and then pretend the subsequent cost-overruns were unpredictable and unforeseen).
But not many proponents actually ‘fess up and admit that taxpayers were intentionally deceived.
Here is some of what the DC Examiner said in an editorial denouncing the duplicity and mendacity of the project’s chief bureaucrat.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Chairman Charles Snelling finally admitted that he deliberately misled the public when he stated it was “beyond dispute” that Dulles Rail was “on time and on budget.” Turns out it is neither — a fact Snelling and his fellow MWAA Board members knew all along, stripping the last pretenses of transparency and accountability from one of the largest infrastructure projects in the nation. Snelling later acknowledged that construction managers warned MWAA that the opening of Phase I would be delayed six months and that unexpected expenses were depleting the project’s contingency fund. …Snelling’s less-than-candid assurances were an attempt to deprive taxpayers of a true accounting of this runaway project before November’s county and state elections. But what do you expect when you sever the critical tie between voters and officials with the authority to spend public funds? Unaccountable political hacks like MWAA board members, who cannot be removed — even by the governor of Virginia — have no incentive to spend the people’s tax dollars wisely — or even to tell them the truth, for that matter.
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[…] other words, it’s possible that President-Elect Trump might give us an Obama-style stimulus scheme. Or he may take a radically different approach by removing roadblocks that hinder more […]
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[…] to nowhere, lots of fat contracts to line the pockets of unions, some mass transit boondoggles, and more horror stories about cost […]
[…] to nowhere, lots of fat contracts to line the pockets of unions, some mass transit boondoggles, and more horror stories about cost […]
Politician: We can get this country moving again by spending on needed infrastructure.
Citizen: What is your plan?
Politician: The sidewalks around a certain property of mine need repair. That’s a start.
Crumbling Infrastructure
09/05/11 – CafeHayek by Russ Roberts
[edited] 11/19/08 – NY Times by David Leonhardt
Part of the problem is inadequate financing for infrastructure. But, the bigger problem is how scattershot the money is spent.
Government agencies usually don’t do a rigorous analysis of how a project would affect traffic and the environment, or its cost compared to alternatives. In a recent survey of local officials, 80% decided largely on politics. Fewer than 20% cited potential benefits.
Spending on infrastructure is up 50% in the last 10 years, adjusted for inflation, and the highest since 1981. But, monumental waste produces few and small improvements.
[…] decides who gets the jobs? Who decides what jobs to do? Who holds the contractors accountable? You? Here’s an article that provides a little insight into what happens when the government takes on […]
DOT is not the only department that needs to be abolished. Add to the list Commerce, Labor, Agriculture, HHS, Interior, Education, HUD, Energy, VA, and possibly even Justice (replace with a smaller agency?)
Add to that the hundred+ independent agencies, and you get savings of about a trillion dollars per year. As the federal workforce is aging, this could be accomplished over the next 10 years or so through attrition.