It's About That Light at the End of the Tunnel Thing

Dear America,

happy tuesday.

So, I was taking my girl to school this morning when I was suddenly broadsided.  Oh I'll be fine.  No biggie.  But the other guy -- the one doing the broadsiding, hot-wheeling on the tax payer dime -- should be thrown into the clink, the key tossed into the drink off the Bay Bridge, slated to open by Labor Day 2013.

The Mike Slater Show, on KFMB in San Diego, was all over this this morning.

As the story goes ripping through the headlines, this stellar road and bridge combination has been knee deep in controversy nearly from the get-go.  Between the steel being manufactured in China, to the actual cost being not even remotely close to the original estimation (what else is new?), to scores of potential California Union jobs being turned over to outsourcing simply because it would cost too much -- somehow or other we are celebrating a recent decision to throw a party upon its completion that will cost taxpayers an additional 5.6 million dollars.

Oh yeah, you heard me correctly.

That would be a 5.6 MILLION dollar price tag ceremonially observing the utter brilliance of a bureaucratic monstrosity.  Per Huffington Post, "toll dollars will be used for the public access related costs such as the timed ticketing system, barriers and access control, security, portable toilets, managing volunteers and buses."

And about that original estimate -- the 6.3 Billion taxpayer dollars:  current calculations doubles that number (and again, we're like six months away from being done).

For the full expanse on costs outweighing benefits, go here...a place called San Francisco Public Press. Supposedly, it will be somewhere around the year 2049 before it is paid for (yeah, right...that's a good one).

Only in California can we be 5 BILLION dollars over budget and celebrate it with a 5.6 million dollar party.

Via the SF Public Press --

"Why the price has skyrocketed is a tale of politics, bureaucratic bumbling, and unforeseen construction problems—all classic ingredients of California public works projects. It is a tale of obscure but powerful agencies, legislative bickering, and four successive governors grappling with a project so massive and complex that one consultant suggested the human mind might be unable to grasp, or accept, “the magnitude of the undertaking and the time and resources required to complete it.”

exactly.

California is like a microcosm of America.  The "human mind might be unable to grasp, or accept, 'the magnitude of the undertaking and the time and resources required to complete it."

Let's just substitute ANY government program -- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, ObamaCare...

Our founders designed AMERICA to be a FREE market, celebrating individual liberty to pursue and create our world, large and small.  We were originally retrofitted with a foundation built upon self-reliance, counting upon the individual to be of sound mind, diligent, productive, hard workers reliant upon their own personal attributes and talents and strength and determination and ambition to grow wealth and acquire property and be fully, inherently, harmoniously, intelligently independent of the government in every way possible.  As citizens, THIS was our duty to one another and ourselves.

But no -- here's news you can use --  the price of the good, self-righteous government has skyrocketed...it's just "a tale of politics, bureaucratic bumbling, and unforeseen construction problems...it is a tale of obscure but powerful agencies, legislative bickering," and quite possibly, four score and seven years of leadership "grappling with a project [building big government from sea to shining sea] so massive and complex that one consultant suggested the human mind might be unable to grasp, or accept, 'the magnitude of the undertaking and the time and resources required to complete it.'"

Which reminds me of something funny my mama sent me many moons ago. It's been used before; but only because this blog is repeating things at every turn, we're gonna give it another go round here, too:

Public Notice:

Due to recent

budget cuts,

the rising cost of electricity,

gas, oil, plus

the current state of the economy,

the light at the end

of the tunnel

has been turned off.

Have a nice day.

it's pretty good, huh.

Will the 5.6 million dollars in festivities begin Labor Day 2013 --- albeit years late and five billion dollars over budget?  Time, resources, bureaucrats and tax assessments will tell us soon enough.

Make it a Good Day, G