John McCain opened his mouth and inserted his foot, sideways, trying to tie his favorite cause, wasteful spending, to the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. On Wednesday, McCain said:
“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.”
He tried to clarify that statement on Thursday by saying:
“No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved.”
Somebody wake McCain up and tell him that the bridge was scheduled to be replaced in 2020, not because there was a lack of funding but because that was believed to be the useful life of the bridge. While surveys of the bridge identified “deficiencies,” the bridge was never identified as unable to carry its designed traffic load. The current evidence is suggesting that the bridge collapsed due to a design flaw that had gusset plates undersized by a factor of half.
I agree with McCain’s desire to shrink government and end wasteful spending. However, just because you have a hammer, not every problem is a nail.
As I said, stupidity is party agnostic. Regarding his opposition to the federal gas tax holiday, Barack Obama said:
“Remember that bridge in Minneapolis? We’re already short on money in terms of investing.”
Same response to Barack with this addition…Barack, since when have you been concerned about spending money? You seem to have money for anything you can possibly imagine. The last look at the ol’ “Spend-o-meter” is that you’ve committed to spending an additional $850B. You don’t think you could find a mere $350M to send our way?
