Randi Rhodes is crazy
So I was poking around the internet today and found an interesting blog post. It said that Randi Rhodes (the crazy left-wing, low ratings, radio host) said that the bridge collapse in Minnesota was a product of President Bush’s tax cuts and, of course, the War in Iraq.
Not only is that insensitive to the people who were actually effected, but it’s downright wrong. Her point was that we’re spending so much money on the War in Iraq that we can’t afford to take care of our road ways.
Turns out she’s wrong, surprise! She should probably do some research before flapping her yap, luckily I did it for her.
For starters the Interstate Highway system is operated and inspected by the states and they also contribute in finacing as well. As a matter-of-fact 56% of the contruction and mantienance costs for the Interstate Highway system are collected from the gasoline tax and through tolls. Meaning that War in Iraq or not over half of the funding would be there (so long as people didn’t stop driving).
Even more astonishing is the fact that we’ve been pouring more and more money into the Department of Transportation and specifically the federal highway administration. In fiscal year 2005 we contributed $57.4 billion to the DOT. That number rose to $59.5 in 2006 and $65.6 billion in 2007. The number is expected to rise again in the 2008 budget.
In fact the DOT’s budget for 2007 they only budgeted $36 billion for the Federal Highway Administration, Bush’s budget included$39 billion, how insensitive.
If we focus in more on the FHA we’ll see the same pattern as the total for the DOT. In FY 2006 $38.4 billion was given to them. In FY 2007 $39.8 billion was given to them. And the projected for 2008 is $40.3 billion. And if history is any teller about 12% of that will go to safety.
Meanwhile Bush is giving more to the DOT while fighting a costly war and bringing the defecit back up into the green. Not a bad job.
I’ll talk a little bit more at length about this on tomorrow’s show, but I just had to prove Randi Rhodes wrong tonight.
Maybe tomorrow she’ll blame her stupidity on the War in Iraq.
SOURCES
Randi Rhode’s Comments
Overview of the Interstate Highway System
–jb
