GOP Senator Slams 100 Stimulus Projects

(AP)  Repairs for rural bridges, an under-highway safe crossing for turtles and efforts to protect the sage grouse population are among 100 projects a Republican senator pointed to Monday as questionable federal stimulus spending.

The list by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., includes projects others would identify as ideal for creating jobs and benefiting generations of Americans: skateboard parks, streetscapes, upgrades of park facilities, bike trails and parking garages.

Coburn's list is partially a collection of news stories that questioned local projects to be funded under President Barack Obama's economic recovery program. The White House has promoted the program by selecting favorable newspaper stories.

One of the most fiscally conservative senators, Coburn cited the repair of 37 rural bridges in Wisconsin that average little more than 500 vehicles apiece each day; with one carrying no more than 10 cars a day. The projects jumped over larger, urban repairs because they were "shovel ready."

Local officials had a different perspective. Coburn, for instance, criticized $840,000 to repair a bridge in Portage County, Wis., that carries 260 vehicles a day largely to a backwater saloon and a country club.

Bill Weronke, the county highway commissioner, said the bridge has "lived its life expectancy" and is dangerous. "It's a pretty crucial bridge in Portage County," he said. He added it soon will be a shortcut to a state highway.

Coburn also criticized a $3.4 million Florida Department of Transportation project for an "eco-passage"; an underground wildlife road crossing for turtles and other wildlife in Lake Jackson, Fla., along U.S. 27.

"Why did the turtle cross the road? To get to the other side of a stimulus project," the Coburn report says.

Josh Boan, the Florida Transportation Department's natural resources manager, said a large number of turtles and other wildlife are killed in the area. In addition to protecting wildlife, he said the project is needed for safety: turtles hit by vehicles can become flying projectiles.

The project north of Tallahassee is to begin in September.

An administration spokesman said the stimulus program already is a great success.

Ed DeSeve, senior adviser to the president for Recovery Act implementation, said, "We have approved more than 20,000 Recovery Act projects to get America's economy moving again.

"With 20,000 projects approved, there are bound to be some mistakes. When we find them, we have been transparent about it, and worked on a bipartisan basis to shut them down immediately. Sen. Coburn's report, however, is filled with inaccuracies, including criticisms of projects that have already been stopped, projects that never were approved, and some projects that are working quite well."

Coburn also criticized:

A Bureau of Land Management project to study the impact wind farms have on the sage grouse population in Oregon. The proposal calls for hiring people to tag sage grouse in areas where wind farms may be built, to help determine where turbines could be located.

$1.5 million in stimulus money for a $5 million new wastewater treatment plant in Perkins, Okla., his home state. Coburn said the stimulus money came with strings that will increase the costs. With a new total cost of $7.2 million, the city will be forced to borrow money and, as a result, utility taxes have increased by 60 percent this year, the senator said.

Grants and loans totaling $1.3 million to Solon Township in Leelanau County, Mich., to help pay for construction of a wastewater treatment plant. Local opposition killed the project. The money will now be used for a future treatment plant, for which there is no plan and questionable local support.

Road signs costing $300 each, being placed at construction sites to alert motorists that the project is being paid for by the stimulus money. Transportation Department spokesman Jill Zuckman said each state decides whether to use stimulus money for signs, and the cost would vary in each state.

A $3 million project to repair taxiways at Hanscom Field, Mass., which Coburn said is for corporate jets. Richard Walsh, a spokesman for the independent state agency that runs the airport, Massport, said only 18 percent of the traffic at the airport is for corporate jets. Most of the use, 70 percent cent, is for flight students, he said.

Montana's state-run liquor warehouse, to receive $2.2 million in stimulus cash to install skylights. The project is part of the $27.7 million the state has been awarded for energy programs.

Click here for the full report from Coburn's office.

[federalist101]

For the uneducated! In 1933 the Glass-Steagall Act was put into law to stop the gross misuse of the banking industry that caused the Great Depression from ever happening again. Alas, in 1999 Bill Clinton finally got the Act fully repealed allowing for our economic crisis we are presently going through. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This is a greed issue. Pork added to bills to get them passed are just more ways of greed to use our national money, instead of local or State money,(which should be the proper funding for local oe state projects. Our government was not created to be your nanny to wipe your face every time it gets dirty. Or, to pay for your candy every time you want to splurge.) The bill that ultimately repealed the Act was introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa) in 1999. The bills were passed by Republican majorities on party lines by a 54-44 vote in the Senate and by a 343-86 vote in the House of Representatives. After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90-8 (one not voting) and in the House: 362-57 (15 not voting). The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999.

The banking industry had been seeking the repeal of Glass-Steagall since at least the 1980s. In 1987 the Congressional Research Service prepared a report which explored the case for preserving Glass-Steagall and the case against preserving the act.

The argument for preserving Glass-Steagall (as written in 1987):

1. Conflicts of interest characterize the granting of credit ? lending ? and the use of credit ? investing ? by the same entity, which led to abuses that originally produced the Act.

2. Depository institutions possess enormous financial power, by virtue of their control of other people?s money; its extent must be limited to ensure soundness and competition in the market for funds, whether loans or investments.

3. Securities activities can be risky, leading to enormous losses. Such losses could threaten the integrity of deposits. In turn, the Government insures deposits and could be required to pay large sums if depository institutions were to collapse as the result of securities losses.

4. Depository institutions are supposed to be managed to limit risk. Their managers thus may not be conditioned to operate prudently in more speculative securities businesses. An example is the crash of real estate investment trusts sponsored by bank holding companies (in the 1970s and 1980s).

The argument against preserving the Act (as written in 1987):

1. Depository institutions will now operate in ?deregulated? financial markets in which distinctions between loans, securities, and deposits are not well drawn. They are losing market shares to securities firms that are not so strictly regulated, and to foreign financial institutions operating without much restriction from the Act.

2. Conflicts of interest can be prevented by enforcing legislation against them, and by separating the lending and credit functions through forming distinctly separate subsidiaries of financial firms.

3. The securities activities that depository institutions are seeking are both low-risk by their very nature, and would reduce the total risk of organizations offering them -- by diversification.

4. In much of the rest of the world, depository institutions operate simultaneously and successfully in both banking and securities markets. Lessons learned from their experience can be applied to our national financial structure and regulation.


Financial events following the repeal:
The repeal enabled commercial lenders such as Citigroup, which was in 1999 the largest U.S. bank by assets, to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and establish so-called structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, that bought those securities. Elizabeth Warren, co-author of All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan (Free Press, 2005) (ISBN 0-7432-6987-X) and one of the five outside experts who constitute the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has said that the repeal of this act contributed to the Global financial crisis of 2008?2009, although some believe that the increased flexibility allowed by the repeal of Glass-Steagall mitigated or prevented the failure of some American banks.

Tom Coburn is one of the few people we have in Washington who actually cares about the American people and not the kickbacks most Representatives and Senators get to pass these ridiculous, porks.

[FreddyBartholomew]

More blathering from the obstructionist "Party of No" NO ideas, NO alternatives, NO support for the middle class, NO, NO, NO! Coburn and his clown-army will not see power again for a generation. BTW, did Coburn ask Limbaughs permission before speaking? Tut, tut!

[tmittelstaed]

Really dumb to criticize wastewater plants. Of course, people in those areas oppose them. Who wants to pay a higher sewer bill when you can just keep flushing your toilet into your septic tank which has been sitting there 50 years and is leaking? So what that your neighbor has to spend $20k on a new, deeper well because his old one is now contaminated, that's his problem.

[jab232]

The GOP got us into this mess. Now they can't do anything but criticize any attempt to get us out.

I'm sure there are some projects which should not be funded. But overall, I also support the attempt to get people back to work. The Republicans are NO-birds. Let them squawk and go ahead and try to do what helps ordinary working people.

[jab232]

The GOP got us into this mess. Now they can't do anything but criticize any attempt to get us out.

I'm sure there are some projects which should not be funded. But overall, I also support the attempt to get people back to work. The Republicans are NO-birds. Let them squawk and go ahead and try to do what helps ordinary working people.

[PVperson2]

What's the matter Coburn, didn't get your cut?

[credibility2]

Hey, if the money is truly needed, then fine, but these examples are nothing more than pork. It's too bad that the regime jackals can't stand being challenged, criticized and otherwise be uncovered as a bunch of fools doing the ole' payback bit to their cronies. Creating a thoroughfare under a highway for turtles is asinine. What's next? Turtle classes to teach them a strategy of which thoroughfare they should use in order to protect themselves from not being run over? And repairs to bridges that are in otherwise fine order, especially when so few vehicles use it? The other examples of stimulus waste exposes the truth about the wasteful spending advocated by the Obama regime. It's irrelevant that a Republican is reiterating the pork programs. I love the one about the millions to repave a runway on the tarmac of a Murtha pet airstrip. When Republicans tried to get Dem-controlled Congress to do something about Fannie and Freddie and subprime shell games, the do-nothing Dem Congress (Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank, Murtha, Waters, etc.) looked the other way and secured their blinders. It's always the fault of the Republicans. Reminder kids, many Dems voted for the same things as the Republicans did, so stop your whining and get real. BTW, didn't vote for Bush 43 either time and I proudly and intelligently didn't vote for Obama this time - so bite your rear before trying to label me as a Republican.

[antoniof123]

Let me get this straight what do the Republcians have to show for 14 years in power they have 2 wars 1 of which they attacked the wrong country. My 13 years old would have know better, of course they say it was bad info yea like any one believes them. What else do they have to show for it a failed economy that we tax payers have to hold up so the rich don't go belly up. How about a road or a bridge nothing not one.

Oh wait they do have 2 bridges to show for it a bridge to no where (that we never got our money back) and a bridge that feel down.

So what a deal Bush and his lock step congress and yes fillibusters spent (doubled the debt) 5 trillion dollars with only a big black hole to show for it.

Thanks GOP but no thank you come up with some real useable ideas and we can talk until then go home and sit in the cornor.

[NY-Joe-10]

by antoniof123 June 16, 2009 12:35 PM PDT
Let me get this straight what do the Republcians have to show for 14 years in power they have 2 wars 1 of which they attacked the wrong country.

Antonio, since you like to talk trash about Republicans, let me ask you this.....This country attacked and went to war with Afghanistan and Iraq....You claim we attacked the "Wrong" country.....if Afghanistan and Iraq were the "wrong" country, which would be the "right" country to attack in your opinion ? (Iran, Syria, Saudi)

[sean58z]

Tom gave our money away to OPEC!! Why so many complaints? Barack Obama is spending the taxes in America.

[IThoughtItWasFunnyAgin]

Obama just tanked the hydrogen car that GM was rolling out...the greenie weenie's dream car. Now why do you think he destroyed GM, pushed their bankruptcy until it got done before his Middle East trip, and then changed his itinerary to make a pit stop to assure King Abdullah that he'd killed of the hydrogen car that basically runs on WATER???

Why do you think he had it YANKED from demonstration at Epcot Center where hundreds of thousands of Americans was LOVING IT?

Now his mush mouthed GM CEO ex AT&T thief, claims production costs reasons.

FOR THE GREENIE WEENIE CAR THEY WERE FIXING TO ROLL ON THE SHOWROOM FLOOR AND HAD ALREADY STARTED CONTRACTING FOR FUELING STATIONS IN CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK?

Anybody got a freaking clue why he did THAT?

[kennyrodgers]

For the person who said the recession wouldn't wait for shovel ready jobs, why is most of the money not going to be spent for a couple of years yet. Actually we all know, can you spell ELECTION boys and girls? By the way, does anybody else think it's strange that the person picked to rebuild the auto industy (Brian Deese, not an engineer, not trained in economics, never done this before, a yale law college dropout).