I just read an article online about the F-35 strike fighter project that's going to cost us more than the GNP of Australia . . .
A few years ago, I attended the AIWW Association meeting in Wrightsville Beach where I got into heated conversation with a member of the Corp of Engineers who was defending the Government's concern for the taxpayers by not providing the $5 million requested to make up for years of no dredging in the ICW in Georgia . . .
And . . . after Hurricane Isabel, the Corps was forced to spend untold millions blocking the new inlet cut in Hatteras Island just so a dozen people could drive their cars from Nags Head. That inlet, left alone, might just have provided a more natural transit than Oregon between the Atlantic and Pamlico Sound . . . for zero dollars!
The Federal Government has a mandate to fund the maintenance of the ICW -- a mandate! -- but representatives in Congress from the states it passes thru are afraid that asking for the mandated funds will look like asking for earmarks . . .