The Un-Porkulus

The following letter by a fella named Mark Kostner was published in a blog post (“Dear Harry Reid: Where’s our damn pork?”) by CityLife columnist Andrew Kiraly on Thursday which calls into question the #1 reason many of Nevada’s movers-and-shakers continue to feed us as the reason for re-electing Sen. Harry Reid (D) next year:

“…I’ve got to ask you, folks, just what has this man done for Nevada? This is a serious question. We’re represented by the Senate majority leader, formerly the Senate minority leader and before that the Senate minority whip.

“Democratic senators and congressmen are famous for, among other things, bringing home the bacon. With a powerful senator in Washington representing little old us, we should have all kinds projects in Nevada, given the clout we should have. U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who’s still there in his 90s, brought a lot of projects to West Virginia.

“LBJ, before he was president, was another Senate majority leader and, by coincidence, a lot of highways, dams and NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center got built in Texas. One of the first words ever spoken on the moon was Houston,’ as in ‘Houston, we’ve got a problem.’

“With Harry Reid, we should have all kinds of goodies to show for our representation. Let’s look at a few examples of traditional government largesse.

“The Las Vegas Beltway might have been built by Uncle Sam as I-215, not by Clark County, or maybe we might have had a second or even a third beltway to alleviate congestion. Maybe those toll lanes proposed on I-15 might have been free and been built, or maybe the new Hoover Dam bridge might have had a freeway leading to its approaches instead of the old two-lane US 93 through Boulder City, which will be a lot of fun to drive when the bridge opens.

“Between former presidential candidate John McCain on one side of the chasm and Harry Reid on the other and all that political power, you’d think there would have been a freeway to Kingman or maybe even Phoenix, let alone a freeway around Boulder City.

“What about the environment? Harry’s always talking about how green he is, shutting down new power plants, trying to get cap-and trade-through so our utility bills will stay nice and affordable, right?

“You’d think there would have been some kind of solar energy project on the scale of past Nevada projects like Hoover Dam, Nellis, the wartime plants in Henderson, something to show off one of our abundant natural resources, and fight our dependence on foreign oil as we’re constantly told we need to do.

“Or our two universities, Nevada and UNLV, should have had research parks, or something sponsored by Washington like other state universities around the country to pursue alternative energy and the like.

“How about health? Take UMC. Around the country, a lot of university medical centers are involved in various cutting-edge research projects, like building cancer centers, for example, like Kansas is doing; other states have specialized research they’re doing. Do we associate UMC with life-saving medical research or horror stories?

“Water’s another challenge facing Las Vegas. In times past, politicians with a lot of clout got projects like the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Central Arizona Project, Central Utah Project and many others built over the years. Have we seen a Southern Nevada Project to build the water lines to the north? Or get water released from Lake Powell to keep Lake Mead’s water level full or at least up above crisis levels? Powerful senators in the past were able to horse trade and do things like this.

“Finally, there’s the train. With all this power and influence, you would think the Amtrak Desert Wind that went by the wayside in 1995 would have been restored, maybe even with a couple of companion trains to cut down on I-15 traffic, which had become the second busiest highway in the country behind the East Coast’s I-95.

“I know the talk has been about high-speed rail, but you have to walk before you can run, and a standard train to California beats the Greyhound or having to go by air on a short trip. A train to L.A. and San Diego would have been nice and I would have ridden it. Did we get practical transportation, or the promise of a high speed, high tech train to.…Victorville? Like the approach to the Hoover Dam Bridge, we come up short.

“Now I realize our illustrious senator couldn’t do all these things, but maybe he could have done some of them or even a couple of them.

“And again, I don’t support the man or vote for him, but my point wasn’t to rag on the guy, just to show that for all this clout and power, it’s my opinion that Nevada doesn’t have a whole lot to show for it, and I remember other Senate majority leaders and other powerful senators in the past managed to bring a lot of money home for their constituents. You see their names on things, like McCarran Airport for example.

“Look at Nevada’s history – or the history of your home state – and see the projects that were built and then take a look around and see how Harry Reid stacks up, given all his power. And then think of all those checks in last week’s article and ponder whether Nevada will be benefiting – or just Harry and the Reids.

“Speaking of writing checks, back when AIG, the banks, General Motors, and Chrysler were getting their bailouts, as CityCenter was twisting in the wind and Echelon and later Fontainebleau were suspending construction, I thought, what about these guys and their employees? Where was a bailout for Nevadans? Was their senator fighting for them?

“Harry, the war is lost. I think it’s time for a new crop of leaders.”

Now, I’m personally opposed to pork, earmarks, TARP, stimulus and cash-for-clunkers, but this guy Kostner makes an excellent point. If Harry Reid’s position of power is so great for Nevada, why are we hurting so badly these days and have so little to show for it?