A Republican “I Told You So” on Bike Path Spending
From Illinois comes word that a $4 million federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control awarded last week to Cook County “will be used to establish community gardens” and “to develop of [sic] pedestrian and bicycle paths” that are intended to “increas[e] physician activity in schools, [and] promote walking and biking to and from school.” While it’s unclear where exactly the funding for this particular CDC grant came from, it is clear that the health care law includes a new $15 billion slush fund to finance “community transformation grants” that could include bike paths, grocery stores, and jungle gyms. Also of note: The omnibus bill that Democrats were forced to withdraw last December included a full $750 million in spending out of the Prevention and Public Health “slush fund,” including $630 million to the CDC – which could be used to fund additional bike path and garden grants.
When Republicans highlighted these wasteful projects during the health care debate, liberals called it one of the “best lies about the new health care law” that the slush fund could be used for things like jungle gyms. Yet less than a year after the bill was signed into law, the EXACT types of grants that Republicans criticized are being awarded using hard-earned taxpayer dollars. So while Speaker Pelosi famously said that we had to pass the bill to find out what’s in it, Republican predictions of dubious federal spending on bike paths and other types of projects have been proven correct.
More importantly, at a time when the federal government faces an all-time deficit of nearly $1.5 trillion this fiscal year – and Illinois is imposing a massive 67% increase in state income tax rates to cover its own budget shortfall – many may wonder whether the government should be spending taxpayer dollars funding bike paths and community gardens.