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Friday, November 30, 2007

Watchdog Group Sees Signs of Progress

By Julia Malone | Friday, November 30, 2007, 04:08 PM

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Taxpayers for Common Sense, the group that exposed a $398 million federal project by ridiculing it as the “Bridge to Nowhere,” issued a rare upbeat report today in its war against federal spending.

“Despite popular belief, not everyone in Washington is trying to rip us off,” begins the group’s latest newsletter. It celebrates the defeat of the bridge project, once planned to connect tiny Gravina Island airport with sparsely populated Ketchikan, Alaska.

Other positive steps cited include: Congress voted to disclose more information about once secretive “earmarks” for their pet projects; President Bush’s veto of the Labor-Health and Human Services spending bill; and the decision of Lee County, Fla., officials to turn down $10 million for a “Coconut Road” interchange.

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