Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Taxpayers against the Bypass

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by

James A. Bacon
in , , ,

In a new report, “Sliding Past Sequestration,” Taxpayers for Common Sense have outlined a program to cut $2 trillion in federal spending over the next 10 years without touching entitlements. Among the many ideas are proposals to delete low Return on Investment transportation projects.

Along with the likes of the Upper Mississippi River Navigation Locks Project, the Juneau Access Road, the Columbia River Crossing and other boondoggles, the TCS highlights the Charlottesville Bypass. Cut the project, the group says, and save $244 million.

Write the Taxpayers for Common Sense:

The proposed Charlottesville Bypass is a 6.2 mile, four lane limited access highway intended to act as a reliever route for the congested U.S. 29 corridor. This bypass is extremely expensive as compared to similar projects and will cost almost $40 million per mile. Furthermore, state transportation officials found that none of the bypass alternatives would have much, if any, impact on the “F level of service” rating on the existing U.S. 29 corridor. More fiscally responsible alternatives such as overpass and design improvements have shown promise of achieving the same goals without the local opposition that has developed against the bypass. Congress should block any federal funding for this wasteful roadway.

For the record, the $244 million in savings is a bit overstated. It’s an outdated estimate. The winning bid for the construction portion of the project has come in lower than estimated, thus reducing the overall cost of the project. As for Congress blocking federal funding on the project, good luck with that. Congress has not shown any inclination to get involved. But the larger point remains: There are likely many ways to get more bang for the buck on $200+ million.

— JAB

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Comments

  1. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    My LORD – two trillion! That’s twice as good as the sequestration and makes Ryan and the GOP look like Skunk Dung.

    I’m IMPRESSED!

    Agriculture $ 126.6 billion | $11.8 billion
    Energy $ 123.2 billion | $12.8 billion
    General Government $ 0.6 billion | $0.06 billion
    Infrastructure $ 5.3 billion | $ 0.5 billion
    National Security $ 672.5 billion | $64.2 billion
    Public Lands $ 18.3 billion | $ 1.7 billion
    Tax Expenditures $ 946.0 billion | $60.2 billion
    Transportation $ 187.5 billion | $11.4 billion
    Savings total $ 2.08 trillion | $ 162 billion

    I like the pivot from DOD to National Security.

    Right now if you take DOD and ADD Homeland Security, and the other non-DOD budget for National Security – you get about 1.3 trillion which is about how much we take in – in revenues these days.

  2. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Brilliant! Continue the wealth redistribution programs (i.e. entitlements) but cut off infrastructure.

    Haven’t the sons and daughters of bitches in the Boomer Generation screwed their children enough?

    It’s time to STOP letting the Boomers continue to stuff money in their own pockets and START rebuilding the infrastructure of the United States so that our kids have a shot at the American dream.

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    step 1 – stop the deficit spending

    step 2 – balance the budget

    step 3 – start buying down the debt

    step 4 – decide how much infrastructure we want to pay for

    Of course when Obama said to build more infrastructure as stimulus – the “we’re robbing our children” mantra seemed to also be in play.

    so which is it? is balancing the budget ALSO “robbing the children”?

    who knew?

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      Immediately reduce Social Security benefits by 25%.

      Why should the “greedy grays” in the Boomer generation continue to steal money they never paid into the system from their own children.

      Shame, Boomers, shame.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        SS is the least of the problems and the most easily fixed. When SS was created it was premised on life expectancy – more precisely the period of time between retirement and end of life.

        We’ve gained quite a few years on that original premise.

        but your assertion ignores the real issue with entitlements and that is that SS was explicitly designed to NOT end up paying out more than it was funded – UNLIKE Medicare and DOD and others.

        If those others had been designed as SS was – we would have had automatic sequesters that required outgo to not exceed funding.

        and yet there is no shortage of right-wingers who attack SS as a “ponzi” scheme – completely ignoring the fact that all insurance as well as all annuities (that comprise many non-govt pensions) all are pay-as-you-go insurance and NOT pension funds.

        the right is all over the map on the issues. It’s like McCarthyism or the Bolshevik revolution – any/all members of the previous generation are de-facto enemies of the current generation and are to be hunted down and executed.

        Romney and his supporters wonder why he has never got more than 50% and in some cases 45% and these folks are clueless because they believe the country is as far right as the propaganda that is spewing non-stop – and the country simply is not.

        The 47% are for the most part hard working folks who basically did not get enough education to make it in a global job world and now struggle along. Others are folks who have worked their whole lives and now exist on fairly meager SS and pensions – the lucky ones whose corporations did not go belly up and gave their pensions to the govt.

        the right is playing a non-stop blame game … with almost no vision – no realistic vision of the future. they’re living in a dream world as if Romney did get elected that he’d implement the rightwing red meat agenda.

        1. DJRippert Avatar
          DJRippert

          “SS is the least of the problems and the most easily fixed.”.

          It was broken until Reagan and Tip O’Neill “fixed it”.

          Now, it’s broken again.

          Typical government entitlement program.

          If it’s so damn easy to fix – why don’t we fix it?

          Because the only fix is to either raise taxes, cut benefits or both.

          And our chicken**** politicians won’t do either.

          Instead, they will wait until the night before failure, declare a crisis that couldn’t have been foreseen, raise taxes and then put another half-assed band aid with a 20 year half life on the problem.

          Government is not the solution to much of anything.

          However, a road or a dam once built tends to stay built.

          Government might be able to handle infrastructure. However, it clearly cannot handle entitlement programs.

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            not broken.. needs tweaking.

            and why hasn’t it?

            because the right is opposed to the CONCEPT of Social security UNLIKE Reagan who accepted it and took responsibility for making necessary changes to keep it healthy.

            You are willingly choosing to associate yourself with people who are basically anti-govt and are actively engaging in vandalizing governance- refusing to govern but instead seeing how much sand they can pour into the gears.

            the most advanced, most powerful economies in the world belong to countries who have compulsory savings for pensions and health care.

            the countries that don’t do this are 3rd world.

            we have folks in this country who are so far right that they oppose many of the things that their supposed hero Ronald Reagan stood for – LIKE social security and LIKE a progressive tax system.

            Today, someone like Ronald Reagan would be called a RINO and kicked out of the party.

            Our tax revenues are lower than when Reagan was in office but we are said to have a “spending” and entitlement “problem”.

            We cannot cut DOD even if we funding it with deficit spending because it would be “devastating”.

            we have a political party of gnomes and vandals whose goal is to damage government as much as they can.

            the goal of these guys is to return us to a military industrial complex – the very thing another Republican – Eisenhower warned us about.

            there is no governance with these guys. they want to impose their view on the country… no matter what the country wants.

  4. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    Take a look at their document. This is a serious effort. This is a much more serious effort than the Ryan budget which is a joke!

    this is more comparable to the Simpson-Bowles or the Sequester itself.

    They pick specific things, specific programs –

    and I’d point out that they not only balance the budget, they go further and buy down the debt. Ryans plan does not even balance the budget until 2032 and by that time, we’ll have a 25+ trillion debt.

    If we are REALLY serious about cutting spending – it’s going to be very painful and there will be no sacred cows.

    This effort – has no sacred cows.

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