Riding the wave of the GOP’s successful push to have Congress defund Acorn, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) tried to push through another prudential budget matter: killing the John Murtha-Johnstown Cambria County Airport. His effort was not as successful.
On Thursday afternoon, the GOP brought a measure to the Senate floor to end federal subsidies for the airport Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) had built in Johnstown, PA, right in his home district. Over the past few years, the airport has received roughly $150 million in funds from the defense budget, and it got $800,000 in stimulus money.
But it just so happens the airport only sees about 6,700 passengers… a year. Luckily, Murtha is the chairman of that wonderful little defense committee, dutifully guiding money towards the airport build largely so he could get from Dulles back to his home easier.
Tyler Grimm wrote in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month:
The usually barren airport–there were several times during the day I paced the building for 15 minutes and did not see another human being–has a lot of unused advertising space. But you can’t miss the large picture of John Murtha among a collage of Lockheed Martin workers at the airport’s center. It’s a monument to earmarks: “Partnerships Make a World of Difference,” the ad reads.
The Senate voted mostly down party lines to keep the $1.4 million in annual spending on the airport in the budget. Yes, we spend that much money to operate to fund an airport that is losing money and seeing maybe 20 people pass through a day.
Now, it’s true that the deficit is a behemoth in the trillions, but every little $1.4 million helps. Keeping this obvious, greasy piece of pork is a travesty worthy of a loud grunt of frustration and a snifter of brandy. As Sen. DeMint exclaimed, “If we can’t stop it, we can’t stop anything.”
A new era of fiscal responsibility indeed.
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