If you’re like me and Ed Driscoll, you’re the sort who would think that if we were going to spend almost a trillion dollars that we don’t actually have on a ‘stimulus program’ then we’d at least spend it on infrastructure.  Well, more accurately, you’re sort who hopes that we’d spend it on infrastructure, because if you’re like me and Ed Driscoll you’d be well aware that once the Beltway Establishment gets a hold of an idea it mutates into a horrific, expensive mess.

The Beltway Establishment got a hold of the idea.

Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue. State money for local roads was cut in many places amid budget shortfalls.

In Michigan, at least 38 of the 83 counties have converted some asphalt roads to gravel in recent years. Last year, South Dakota turned at least 100 miles of asphalt road surfaces to gravel. Counties in Alabama and Pennsylvania have begun downgrading asphalt roads to cheaper chip-and-seal road, also known as “poor man’s pavement.” Some counties in Ohio are simply letting roads erode to gravel.

Let me put this situation into perspective for you.

• There was 1.25 billion dollars in stimulus money to connect the cities of Orlando (59% Obama) and Tampa Bay (53% Obama) with a high-speed rail line.
• But there was no money to keep the roads paved in Stutsman County, ND (56% McCain).
• There was 3.4 million dollars in stimulus money to create an ‘eco-passage’ for turtles in [Leon] [corrected – ML] County, Florida (62% Obama).
• But there was no money to keep the roads paved in Coshocton County, OH (53% McCain).
• There was 6.5 billion dollars in stimulus money to bribe Sen Arlen Specter (D) of Pennsylvania (55% Obama)
• But there was no money to keep the roads paved in Alabama (60% McCain).

Funny how that works out, isn’t it? – the way that “them that has, got,” I mean. You’d almost be ready to believe that some of this stimulus money was distributed with a look at the 2008 election returns.

But that’s just crazy talk.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.