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Club for Growth President Pat Toomey Says Senate Transportation Bill "A Fiscal Monstrosity"

"The transportation bill passed by the Senate today exceeds even the House version as a fiscal monstrosity," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. "It runs totally counter to the lower taxes, responsible spending lip service paid by Republicans and moderate Democrats at election time."

President Bush originally proposed $256 billion for a six-year surface transportation bill - a whopping 21% increase over the last six-year bill. After Congress last year found it impossible to spend within the confines of that double-digit increase, the President unfortunately upped his offer to $284 billion in his FY06 budget. The House then passed a bill spending $284 billion, but with a provision to allow additional spending during the 6-year window. Not to be outdone when it comes to wasting the taxpayers' money, the Senate has passed a bill to spend $295 billion.

Transportation funding is among the worst examples of misspending and pork barrel politics. Congress earmarks thousands of individual projects, many of which have nothing to do with transportation. In the House bill alone there are more than 4000 such projects. Examples include:

• $3 million to renovate and expand the National Packard Museum and adjacent historic Packard facilities in Ohio;
• $500,000 to improve sidewalks, upgrade lighting, and add landscaping in downtown Glennville, Georgia;
• $4 million to plan and construct bike/pedestrian crossings of the Washington-Palmetto Canal in the vicinity of Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana; and
• $1.3 million to construct a recreational visitor center on the Mesabi Trail in the City of Virginia, Minnesota.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan vetoed a transportation bill because it had excessive earmarks. The bill contained less than 200 overall.

"If a conference committee does not significantly pare back this bloated bill, we will urge a "NO" vote in both chambers on the conference report," concluded Toomey. "And if the conference report nevertheless passes, we will urge the President to give this bill the veto it rightly deserves."

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Best Regards,

Pat

Patrick J. Toomey
President, Club for Growth
2001 L Street, NW, Ste 600
Washington, DC 20036
PH: 202-955-5500

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