Comments about ‘Utah No. 13 in federal pork-barrel spending’

The funny thing is I would love to see smaller federal spending, and force those decisions back on the state to fund these programs.

Take mass trasnsit systems. Ultimately everyone knows we need them. And they are largely funded out of federal dollars to get them off the ground. It is a form of indirect spending. You local representative can sit there and claim they were fiscally responsible, all the while spending federal dollars to provide services they didn't have to go to the well to provide. The local reps then can decry the crazy federal spending, looking blameless.

I think it would be great if we could cut our federal tax bills by half, and force the locals to not hide behind federally funded programs. School boards would have to justify the real cost of local eductaion to the voters, not the federally subsidized numbers.

And voters would have to realize their local and state taxes would sky rocket. Small communities would be devestated, larger communities benefit. But at least they will know who to really hold responsible for the spending, rather than the big bad federal government.