Loose lips sink ships -- and boatloads of money for your home district. Just ask Sen Max Baucus (D-MT). He was hellbent on getting a Great Falls, Montana runway reopened. So much so, he slipped a pork barrel plan to do just that into the $286 billion highway bill. Problem is, he talked about it too soon.
House members got wind of his self-engineered windfall and refused to vote on the plan until the runway reopening plan was killed.
Some other plans in the highway bill that didn't sit well with critics:
- $3 million for a documentary about infrastructures advancements in Alaska
- An Alaskan bridge to a tiny island with a population of just 50 people -- so expensive it would have been just as cheap to buy every single resident his own Lear Jet
- And naming the bridge "Don Young's Way"
FYI: Alaskan Rep Don Young (R-AK) just happens to be chairman of the Transportation Committee. A perfect position to pile on the pork. (USAToday)
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