"You might as well slap my wife as take the highway money from West Virginia." - Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)
Unfortunately, Sen. Byrd is the undisputed KING of pork barrel politics, so I don't take his rhetoric very seriously. My guess is that he doesn't want us going to war because it'll take too many dineros away from his highway/tourism appropriations agenda for West Virginia. He's a lifer in WV because he DOES bring home bucket loads of bacon...AKA the country's tax dollars.
West Virginia has some of the finest highways in the country thanks to Sen. Byrd. Problem is, there's hardly any people there to use them (there's nearly as many people just in my county as there are in the whole state of WV). He has been a master at tacking his appropriations onto the most unrelated of bills. In 1965, The Public Works and Economic Development Act was signed into law by LBJ. This program was set up with the intention of drawing industry to the primarily rural and poor areas of central appalachia (not just WV). The thinking was that "if you build it, they will come", meaning that a good road system would draw industry into these remote areas and lift local economies. Great idea, but a failed one IMO. All you have to do is drive through West Virginia and pass exit after exit of nothing more than a few gas stations a pizza joint or two and maybe a mini-mart. Unfortunately, some of the poorest areas of Appalachia haven't been helped much at all. Sure, some folks (those that live near a highway exit) have seen some economic benefit, but I doubt if it's been worth the billions Byrd has sucked from fed coffers. The program was abused, and Sen. Byrd is one of the primary culprits of that abuse.
Ironically, one of West Virginia's most precious assets is it's scenic beauty...the mountains. But Sen. Byrd, who claims vast amounts of money for the sake of tourism to the area, is also a strong proponent of strip mining. I think we all know what a mountain looks like after it's been strip mined. It's not a mountain anymore, at least not one I'd travel to see.
In Adventures in Porkland, Brian Kelly tells of non-germane amendments to bills written by the king of pork himself, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.). According to Kelly: "What Byrd got for West Virginia in the 1991 budget was an awesome display of pork power hitting that would surely rank as one of the best seasons in history. It totaled more than $700 million worth of special projects above and beyond the normal federal spending for the state."
While Rep. Boland was trying to reduce spending for the Nicaraguan contras, Byrd sought to increase spending for West Virginia, adding an amendment to an "emergency supplemental" budget bill for aid to Panama and Nicaragua. The bill, notes Kelly, "had started out seeking a modest $800 million to preserve democracy in Central America, but by the time it went to the floor of Congress it was packed with so many special projects it had become a $3.4 billion sow belly with the mission of preserving Democrats (and a few Republicans) throughout America. Byrd's piece was the biggest," since it included moving the FBI's fingerprint lab from downtown Washington to Clarksburg at a cost of $185 million.
Later in 1991, Byrd snatched one-third of the highway appropriations bill for the entire country (WV makes up less than 1% of the US population) by channeling $140 million in special grants to "improve" West Virginia roads. Other Byrd pork included $100 million for a kind of Disney World with aquariums, wildlife habitats and a gym and indoor pool for trainees. Cost? $100 million. Harpers Ferry also got an $85,000 grant, notes Kelly, for its local police department for no apparent purpose.
Read this and tell me that Byrd is interested in boosting depressed WV economies:
http://www.americanpolicy.org/prop/hinton.htm
Oink!
``Appropriations, Ho!'' Deep in the bowels of the Capitol building, a rookie Republican lawmaker from Wyoming, attending his first budget reconciliation hearing, asks if $29 billion for an ocean-going supercargo port facility for West Virginia's Youghiogheny River might be ``more government pork.'' Recovering heroically from the brink of apoplexy, the Mountain State's senior senator, Robert C. Byrd, rallies with the Lincolnesque line, ``Ah nevah in all mah day-y-y-y-s thought I would hear such unpatriotic apostasy on the floor of the United States Senate.'' The item is approved, and the chagrined young man from Wyoming good-naturedly agrees to lick the bacon grease from the senator's cufflinks. Cameo role by Sen. Strom Thurmond as ``The Mummy.''
There's a whole bunch of folks down in the economically depressed areas of Appalachia that stretch into where I grew up (southeastern Ohio) that don't think much at all of Sen. Byrd.
Please don't be offended by my post Dan, it's not directed at you in any way at all. It's just that Mr. Byrd seriously gets under a lot of people's skin outside of WV (including mine), so he may not be the most righteous of people to quote on the subject of Iraq...well, anything for that matter.
Marc
