While Detroit crumbled, Kerry diverted Michigan tax dollars to Boston

[windansea]

While Detroit crumbled, Kerry diverted Michigan tax dollars to Boston

By Nolan Finley / The Detroit News

John Kerry wants voters to believe he will be the president who reclaims the White House from special interests.

In politics, special interests are everyone who writes checks to the other guy’s campaign, but not to yours. They are shadowy, ill-defined groups who sit behind the curtain and pull the strings of their political puppets.

Boston’s Big Dig in Sen. Kerry’s home state of Massachusetts is a fine example of how special interests use their influence in Washington to drain money from the federal treasury.

The recently opened Big Dig is a 7.5-mile underground freeway replacing an unsightly elevated roadway that marred Boston’s skyline. The Big Dig is also the largest public works boondoggle in history. In today’s dollars, it cost twice as much as the Panama Canal. But without the universal benefit the canal produced.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0401/27/a13-44498.htm

[BeatleBoot]

1. Lol!!

Kerry caused Detroit to crumble??????

Give me a break!

He must be the Dem nominee if that anti-union rag is saying things like that!!!

[windansea]

3. 2X $$ for Panama Canal....???

who's paying for this???

[D G]

2. What a sensationalized title.

Boston got FEDERAL tax dollars for the project described. It's not as if Michigan state tax dollars were sucked into some secret "Washington Insider" pipeline.

Here's the key point of the article:
How ironic is it that money from Michigan taxpayers went into Boston’s hole in the ground even though Detroit has an eyesore on every corner that could have benefitted from federal reconstruction dollars?

Sounds to me like the author isn't really against "special interests" as much as he is pissed that Detroit isn't considered one.

Certainly the Boston project in the article sounds wasteful. However, oddly enough, Ronald Reagan and John McCain are identified as heroes in this article, while Kerry and Ted Kennnedy are demonized. Here's how Kennedy is described: The same Ted Kennedy sat in the House chambers during the State of the Union address last Tuesday, stroking his jowls disapprovingly as President George W. Bush detailed the benefits of his tax cuts.

I wonder which Democrat Nolan Finley (the author and editorial page editor of The Detroit News) supports? Oddly enough, Finley "is inclined to reflect a conservative view of current issues" http://www.wtvs.org/watch/amiright.shtml

[windansea]

5. we are all paying for it

author's point of view is irrelevant

[corporatewhore]

4. kerry beholden to special interests who'd a thunk it

[sandnsea]

6. $800,000 to Republicans

Bechtel and The Big Dig. Let them bring this story up so we know how much money Republicans get from these projects and that Bechtel is also an Iraqi contractor. Sounds like a great idea to me.

[windansea]

7. 14.6 Billion for 8 miles of freeway in Boston

could go a long way for many things more crucial to our society

the same can be said for the billions we are spending in Iraq...

the problem is we the people keep being had...

[Virgil]

23. What gets me about the dig

With the money they spent they could have built a huge town 30 or 40 miles away. Once they build it, it will just increase traffic and encourage more growth as it put billions into the local economy. They should have just built a new town and given people and businesses subsidies to move.

[sandnsea]

25. I agree

Big fat Bechtel mess.

[seaglass]

8. Federal spending for Michigan is more than MA.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxingspending.html

MA. FY 2002 is 0.75 per dollar
Michigan FY 2002 is 0.88 per dollar

This is a fabricated issue - in 1992 MA was 31 in ranking for federal dollars and is now 46. Michigan was 42 and is now 38.

There are 37 other states Michigan residents should be worrying about.

[BeatleBoot]

9. Thank you!

Sheesh!

[windansea]

11. it's not Detroit vs Boston

we...as in US federal taxpayers...paid $14.5 billion for 8 miles of freeway that according to many Bostonites...didn't solve a thing

[shawmut]

12. no, that's wrong

Federal spending was capped on the Big Dig long ago. Massachusetts tax payers are paying the bill for almost half the project's total cost.

[seaglass]

13. First, the direct beneficiaries of the Big Dig are not

Bostonians, it is those who commute into Boston.

Second, it is not complete yet so the full benefit of the project has not been felt.

Third - I'm sorry if you (or this author) objects to money being spent when you don't get the direct benefit. I am for the common good - which means that I accept that my tax dollars will be spent to help those other than myself.

[PVnRT]

16. Ever taken a drive on I-94 in Michigan?

That interstate is a chewed-up piece of shit, yet hasn't gotten fixed yet. I guess the "common good" doesn't extend to us hayseed midwesterners, eh?

[seaglass]

17. I can't tell those in Michigan how to spend their money. n/t

[PVnRT]

20. Interstates are funded with federal dollars

not state revenue.

[seaglass]

21. And I noted above that Michigan is getting more fed dollars

than MA and in the previous 10 years the rankings were fairly close. My point is that however these federal dollars are spent is up to the state of Michigan, I don't resent money they get nor deny that they are just as worthy as the residents of MA to get federal funds. If you want to characterize me that way, go for it.

Here's some more info - State spending of federal highway funds by project type - 1992-2001

Total obligation

MA - 7,031,033,178
MI - 6,459,743,494

http://www.transact.org/progress/pdfs/February03/table_2.pdf

[WilliamPitt]

18. Ever driven in Seattle?

The traffic is insane. Why? Because year after year, the residents vote no on infrastructure improvement referendums. That may be Kerry's fault, too. Let me go google it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

22. Actually, as a side note, we voted over and over for a monorail

system in Seattle. But the local politicos kept trying to shove the more expensive and more disruptive light rail plan down our throats. We voted three consecutive years for a monorail extension plan and finally are getting traction. I don't blame Kerry for our problems here and I don't blame Kerry for the Big Dig. It's the city politicians who fuck things up because they have grandiose and preconceived notions of what's best for "us," despite repeated messages sent at the ballot box. I figure it is much the same in Boston.

[WilliamPitt]

14. I love the Dig

The Southeast Expressway was an abomination, and it took me an hour and a half to travel seven miles to the airport. Fixed, thank you. And yes, as a Massachusetts taxpayer, I paid for it.

[PVnRT]

15. How many more people live in Michigan?

Not to mention that it is larger, thus has more roads, more parks, etc.

But go on laboring under your comfortable little illusion that it's OK to divert $14.6 billion to bury a road in Boston.

[AP]

27. The University of Michigan gets more gov't money than ANY Uni in world

and the benefits flow all over the country. I'm sure MI's ranking is probably largelyy the product of millions UoM gets every year.

The point of this article is that MA, regardless of ranking, got a ton of money that went into building a short road which didn't help many people, but lined the pockets of special interests.

[Norquist Nemesis]

10. Get ready Kerry supporters...

This is just a prelude to what's coming from the right.

[bigtree]

19. The (Right) ?

:scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared:

[sandnsea]

26. Bechtel???

They are the right.

[fiorello]

24. The Detroit News is right-wing rag

....OK, the Detroit News isn't quite as bad as the Murdoch-Fox-News papers, it's more on a par with the Wall Street Journal. It's a Ronald Reagan republican paper.

Detroit's highways really are full of potholes - but I think it's the result of 12 years of a Republican governor who would rather give away money to rich people then fix things, especially in poor parts of the state.

When the Big Dig was started, it was pointed out how for years Federal highway money went disproportionately to the south and west and to rural areas, while urban centers were crumbling.

Uh, that's fine with the Detroit news. They've never been exactly friends to the city of Detroit.