ANKENY, Iowa - Republican John McCain said Saturday that Congress could share in the blame for the Minnesota bridge collapse because lawmakers diverted billions of dollars in transportation money from road work to pet projects.
"I think perhaps you can make the argument that part of the responsibility lies with the Congress of the United States," the Arizona senator said.
McCain said Congress spent roughly $20 billion on special-interest projects when it approved a new highway bill, signed into law by President Bush.
"We spent approximately $20 billion of that money on pork barrel, earmark projects," said McCain. "Maybe if we had done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country. Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."
McCain spoke during a town hall-style meeting with activists, saying he was angered not just by Congress wasting money on special projects, but also by it approving reform packages he labeled a sham.
"I'm angry today because we just had a chance to reform this process in Washington and we punted," said McCain. "We pushed off on the American people a joke and a sham in the name of earmark reform."
Congress wasted $20 billion on special projects? Excuse me Senator, but if you want to see a real waste of taxpayer dollars, why not look at the $550 billion wasted in the Bush administration's war in Iraq--a war which you enthusiastically support? Why not look at your own voting record in supporting all the emergency supplemental bills that this administration has been using to fund this war, rather than going through the normal budgetary process. What is worst is that the costs of the Iraq war could exceed $1 trillion dollars, taking into account the indirect costs of veteran's health care, replacing worn-out military equipment, paying interest on the national debt, and so forth. Senator, you have been one of the administration's most enthusiastic supporters of this disastrous war. You, and this Bush administration, are responsible for wasting what could be a trillion dollars in a war that we should have never gotten into, yet you want to blame Congress for spending $20 billion on special interest projects? Senator, you are not just a slimeball here.
You are a hypocritical slimeball.
By the way Senator, Keith Olbermann makes the same connection of how this administration has wasted $500 billion in its Iraq war, when it could have used the money to upgrade America's bridge infrastructure. You can watch Olbermann through YouTube here:
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