BushCo privatization watch – private toll roads

The attempt to privatize our nation’s highways is drawing increasing opposition from the trucking industry and Republican Congressmen, clear signs that this is a no-go in the long-term.

“They have a myopic view,” said Rep. John L. Mica (Fla.), ranking Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Pricing transportation to drive down traffic may make market sense, but it harms the public, he said. “This was a country based on some system of equality. People are paying their taxes and have representation. You can’t exclude them from having a fair return.”

Department of Transportation officials defend throwing dollars at studying more congestion pricing on toll roads and other things as getting away from “pork-barrel politics.”

Wrong. While old-style transportation politics may be pork-barrel, from Alaska Rep. Don Young’s “bridge to nowhere” to Pennsyvania Rep. John Murtha’s pork wallowing, that doesn’t mean the new system isn’t that, either.

Rather, it’s just a different set of hogs at the trough.