Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Why Stop There, Fellas?

Yesterday, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice reported that the state Department of Transportation squandered $85,000 on slapping their own back for finishing the Marquette Interchange project under budget and ahead of schedule. Some conservative bloggers, including notables James Wigderson and Owen Robinson noted this and decried the waste of taxpayers money on this unnecessary expenditure.

And they are correct in their complaints.

But my question for them is this: Why are you stopping at complaining about the chump change, relatively speaking?

Why are there no complaints about Scott Walker, who wants to waste not only our tax money, but also the future tax money of our children, on the ill-advised proposal to move the mental health complex to the former St. Michael's Hospital? Even with a $9 million cut in price, it is still more expensive than to upgrade the current facility, or to rebuild it on the current site. It would also remove any chance of affiliating with accredited hospitals like Froedtert or the Medical College, thereby losing federal funding. Not to mention that it would delay medical attention to patients that might need it in an emergency. It would also continue to under-utilize space that the county already owns and increases safety concerns, adding to the cause.

If that subject is not sexy enough for them, why aren't the conservatives complaining about another waste of money by the county? The county has spent nearly $1 million on Stuart Piltch, who was supposed to be their star witness in the lawsuit against the Mercer Human Resource Consulting Inc. We already know that Piltch's credibility had been called into question and has since dropped out as their star witness, leaving the county to scramble, and spend more money, to preserve their case.

Maybe a conservative wasting a million dollars isn't a big deal with them. So how about Governor Sarah Palin, who wants to spend $2 million to study crab sex, $3.2 million on seal genetics, and another half a million on how to catch a fish? And that is just the drop in the bucket. Palin has requested a total of $453 million in earmarks. No, they don't even mention it. Instead they sing their praises of her, because of her "high level of experience." Yeah, um, right. Whatever.

And not once do they complain about the mother of all government waste, that not only has wasted more than a half a trillion dollars, but have cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Yup, I'm talking about the unjust Iraq War. Instead of arguing against this mind-boggling waste of their taxpayer dollar, they are supporting the guy that wants to keep it going for decades.

I guess it's just a matter of perspective and priorities for them. Too bad theirs is so skewed.

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