Thank You, Russ Feingold

...and for what has to be the first time, that was not meant to be sarcastic.

From USA Today, via Captain’s Quarters, via Nick.

WASHINGTON — Six weeks after a fatal Minneapolis bridge collapse prompted criticism of federal spending priorities, the Senate approved a transportation and housing bill Wednesday containing at least $2 billion for pet projects that include a North Dakota peace garden, a Montana baseball stadium and a Las Vegas history museum.
That’s not the half of it.

Total spending on transportation “earmarks” next year is likely to be about $8 billion, when legislative projects from a previously approved, five-year highway bill are factored in. A newly released report by the Department of Transportation’s inspector general identified 8,056 earmarks totaling $8.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended in October, or 13.5% of the Transportation Department’s $63 billion spending plan.

Writes Ed:

Senator Tom Coburn attempted to stop the pork party, to no avail. He offered an amendment that would have forbidden earmarks on transportation bills until all deficient bridges had been properly updated. That just barely failed—by a vote of 82 to 14. Eighty-two Senators voted to prioritize pork over infrastructure maintenance.

Russ Feingold is a member of the itty bitty minority of 14.  Herb Kohl and 81 of his Republican and Democratic spending buddies voted to table Coburn’s amendment.  Take THAT, taxpayers.