Dave Hobson’s $800,000 Gas Station To Nowhere

I’m not against earmarks (aka Pork) in appropriation bills.

It’s how congressmen/women get re-elected; how they prove to their constituents that they are working for THEM in Washington.

It’s also how a lot of good things get done. Museums get funded. Roads get built. Parks get maintained. Earmarks aren’t all bad.

But some people/groups think they are. Wingnut groups like Citizens Against Government Waste- who this week turned on one of their own (Dave Hobson, Republican Rep from Springfield) for bringing home some crazy pork projects:

Citizens Against Government Waste today named Republican congressman David Hobson of Springfield its “Porker of the Month” for obtaining $300,000 from the federal government in 2008 to upgrade the restrooms of a local amphitheatre, and for a 2001 earmark that designated $800,000 in federal money to build a gas station in Wilberforce.

According to Hobson, the 300K went to make the restrooms at Veterans Park Amphitheatre accessible to people with disabilities- which sounds somewhat reasonable.

But $800K to build a gas station in the middle of nowhere? Where’s the value in that?

According to Hobson, he “once came close to running out of gas in Wilberforce and has strived since then to bring a gas station to the area.” Good reason, dude. Congrats on your success.

But the BEST excuse for wasting almost a million tax payer dollars on a private, commercial gas station in the middle of butt-fuck-Ohio came from the president of Wilberforce University who claims that the new gas station provides the “obvious benefit of jobs and internships” to his students as well as increased access to “sundries, food, gasoline and other services”

ha!

Now THAT’S classic. We spent almost a million bucks to build a gas station in the middle of nowhere so a few college students could get crappy, minimum-wage jobs and the rest would have access to twinkies and beef jerkey.

Thanks Dave!