McCain is Wrong on Collapsing Bridges and the Mafia's Good Works

U.S. Senator John McCain has said some pretty crazy things on the campaign trail this year. He's said our troops should stay in Iraq for another hundred years. He's said many Americans who get health insurance from their employers should pay higher taxes. He said the economy was doing well and that the Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans should remain permanent.

This week, McCain added two more crazy statements to the list. First, he blamed the collapse of the Minnesota I-35 bridge last year on congressional earmarks. He went on to explain that comment by suggesting that the U.S. Congress was similar to the Mafia. He's wrong on both counts.

Speaking in Pennsylvania, McCain asserted that earmark funding, the congressional directives often used to target federal funding into the districts of federal appropriators, was responsible for the bridge collapse that caused the deaths of 13 people in St. Paul. "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money," McCain said. "The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."

Senator McCain then suggested that while some earmarked projects are worthy, the process is corrupting. That's when he brought up the Mafia: "I'm sure that I can give you a list of projects the Mafia funds, and they would probably be good projects. But I can't give you a justification for the Mafia. I can't give you a justification for the corruption that's been bred, which has sent members of Congress to the federal prison."

Comparing the funding of public works projects to the good works of the Mafia isn't just absurd, it's offensive. Perhaps this explains why other Republican senators think he is "erratic" and "hot-headed."

Of course, Senator McCain's campaign against earmarks is noble. We need greater accountability for spending decisions in Washington. But whatever one thinks of earmarks, it is simply nonsense to suggest that pork-barrel funding has something to do with the deadly collapse of the I-35 bridge. While the evidence is still under review, many experts suggest that the bridge fell because of design flaws. Construction funding had nothing to do with it.

Funding did have role to play in the failure to uncover and correct the flaws. For years, AFSCME members in Minnesota and across the country have been warning that public services are under-funded and understaffed. We complained that Minnesota had too few inspectors to examine bridges, and too few maintenance workers to keep up with necessary repairs. We pointed out the critical need for bridge repairs to Governor Tim Pawlenty and the Minnesota legislature, urging them to provide more money to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

All too often our warnings went unheeded, just as our requests for increased federal funding for infrastructure upkeep and repairs were ignored by the Republicans who controlled Congress until last year. Senator McCain was one of those who ignored the need for additional funds. In 2004, for example, he voted against $318 billion to fund new highways and make necessary repairs to our existing roads and bridges. He voted against another highway funding bill in 2004. McCain may say those were wasteful spending bills, but they would have provided billions to states who need the funding to keep our infrastructure from falling apart.

Instead, he supports privatizing public service jobs and outsourcing the public sector. Rather than fund vitally important domestic needs, he supports giving the richest people in our country $350 billion in tax cuts. Rather than fix our highways, he supports spending billions each month on a hopeless war in Iraq. He shares President Bush's passion for dismantling every program that has ever worked for the American people. Senator McCain is all for funding repairs, but only when these public functions have been put in private hands. Keeping corporate contributors happy has always been a higher priority than keeping our roads and bridges safe.

Senator McCain is happy to blame the disastrous results of Republican inaction on earmarks, but that's not where the responsibility belongs. He is responsible, as are the other politicians who failed to provide crucial funding for infrastructure upkeep and repairs. Earmarks aren't to blame. It's irresponsible Republican legislators like Senator McCain.