To Infinity And Beyond - Tinklenberg's Big Choo Choo Earmarks PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andy Aplikowski   
Monday, 13 October 2008 09:28
Hey Hey, Big Spender, El "Earmark" Tinklenberg

If there's one thing about Democrat El 'Gas Tax' Tinklenberg that is for sure, he has a nose for pork. He's so good at sniffing out how to soak taxpayers in the shady earmarking process that he is cozying right up next to the King of Pork Democrat Jim Oberstar (D MN8).

Oberstar is already putting the rope lines up to his office for next sessions pork fest. He's already lining up the list of pet projects for what could be the biggest ever Highway bill. Of course spending on highways is not the point of the bill. For those of us who actually live in the state, and actually have to drive on the roads, we know that our highways are being neglected.

In fact, thanks to Oberstar, the Federal Government actually takes money out of the Highway Trust fund and spends it on bike trails and choo choo trains. Those are either pet projects or mass transit schemes which benefit less than 5% of the public, but garners billions of dollars of the funding, leaving highway repairs unfunded.

Tinklenberg is pledging to not only embrace the shady, backroom, behind close doors earmark process, but he is pledging to work with Oberstar to underfund highways and push more mass transit schemes through.

He thinks we aren't going to waste enough money ($400 million) on Northstar. Not only does he want to see $400 Million diverted away from our underfunded highways, he wants to double down and send the choo choo all the way up to St. Cloud and beyond.

Roads, bridges, highways.

That's what Minnesotans need more of. Every single dollar funneled into special pet projects like bike trails and choo choo trains that benefit a minority of Minnesotans is putting us farther behind and forcing us to sit in more and more congestion. Tinklenberg's unabashed lust for forcing Minnesotans to ride choo choo trains and refusing to fix our roads is one of the most dangerous policies before us.

The earmarking process in Washington that Tinklenberg is pledging to embrace, is a shady and corrupt abuse of power. It is one of the reasons our Federal Budget and Deficit are reaching record highs. There is no oversight. There is no transparency.

Worthy projects would easily pass in the light of day on their own merits.

What Oberstar has done to the process, and Tinklenberg promises to take advantage of, is to corrupt and abuse the power trusted to members of Congress by the public.

Washington is broken. It has corrupted the very practice building and maintaining the infrastructure it pledged to take care of. Oh don't worry, it will still tax us on the premise of highways, but with Tinklenberg and Oberstar, we'll have plenty of Choo choo trains that go to places we may or may not care about.