A rear-entry governmental insertion

I'm no expert on putting together a piece of legislation, especially one as huge and costly as the recently passed economic stimulus measure, but I'm sure you or I would have no problem picking out ridiculously wasteful spending in the bill. In fact, if you picked up today's Observer-Reporter or read it online, you saw a prime example of that. The city of Washington hopes to obtain $866,000 in stimulus money to turn the East Chestnut Street parking garage into an "intermodal transit facility." If you read on, you'll see that the project, which has a total price tag of $2 million, would involve renovation of the garage and "designation of park-and-ride spaces for commuters within the city, those catching the GG&C bus to Pittsburgh and clients of the Washington County Transportation Authority paratransit system." So, essentially, the city wants to spend $2 million, including nearly $900,000 in stimulus money, to create a glorified bus stop and parking lot. Wow, what a wise investment of public funds. Does anyone remember the white elephant parking garage behind the Shop 'n Save? How about the multimillion-dollar downtown revitalization project? Does the downtown seem revitalized to you? When you drive through Washington, do you see other, more pressing needs that might take precedence over a bus stop? Maybe other projects in Washington would not qualify for stimulus money. That's fine. It would be better to give the money to a project elsewhere that might do some real good. Oh, I forgot, the "intermodal transit facility" might also include an "information kiosk." Perhaps they'll dispense some valuable information, such as how to get out of Washington and instructions for the last person leaving to turn out the lights (especially those really pretty ones along our revitalized Main Street).