It's never 'Pork' when the feds send money our way
by James Simpson

Potomac News
Friday, February 27, 2004

I can't believe it, but I actually am compelled to write my column today in defense of Gary Jacobsen. The funding secured by Virginia congressional Rep. Tom "Big Gov" Davis, to dredge the Occoquan, is pork. Not your low grade pork mind you, but the real high quality stuff.
Allow me to quote some of the statements made by letter writers this week:

First from Patricia Conway, Occoquan mayor: "With no other funding sources available, the town council approached the congressman for assistance on a number of projects designed to revitalize our business district and improve upon the town's exterior. Rep. Davis has consistently gone to bat for the town and the voters of Prince William County, securing federal funding over several budget cycles for the ongoing construction of the town's new river-walk, the revitalization of the north end of Mill Street and for the impending dredging of the Occoquan River."

Mayor Conway goes on to say that: "The Occoquan River is [a] designated federal channel that has not been dredged since 1962." She suggested that not doing so in the near future will affect 2,000 boaters as the channel would be "impossible to navigate."

I looked up "designated federal channel" on Google and only found a half-dozen references to the term. It is another one of those phrases made up to sound official, thereby within the purview of the federal government.

Rick Sorrenti pointed out that in addition to over 2,000 boats that use the channel, it is also used by "...commercial transports that come into the river to deliver sand and gravel for the commercial concrete production facility at the intersection of U.S. 1..." and that "The recreational boats alone equate to $50 million in annual revenue to the river and provide a stimulus to economic development of the town of Occoquan and the businesses along the Occoquan and Potomac rivers."

Jose Cabrera states that the Fairfax Yacht Club has "... 170 slips with several hundred boating members." And that "The Occoquan channel has approximately seven full service marinas that serve the boating public, several boating public ramps at local parks, several boat dealers and thousands of individual boating families." He asserts that "The funding is designed to fulfill the government's obligation to keep this as a navigable waterway."

Where in the Constitution is the federal government obligated to keep river channels open as "navigable waterways"? I couldn't find a reference to this requirement.

I submit to you that these yacht clubs, marinas, boat dealers, concrete companies and recipients of the economic benefits of the Occoquan River, that have been mentioned by letter writers, are the folks who should be paying for the dredging, as they will directly benefit from the service.

The average taxpayer should not be forced to pay for such endeavors. If so, where would it end? Since it is beneficial for the government to take money for a project like this, which arguably will stimulate the economy, why not take money to do any number of things. Heck, why not require 100 percent of everyone's earnings go into the public trough so that it can be distributed according to what the government believes to be necessary or economically beneficial?

I may have wanted to group my few cents (collected in taxes) with other peoples money to revitalize part of the Shenandoah, which is also beneficial to many individuals and companies. But that choice has been taken away from me by "Big Gov" Davis who has determined that the benefactors of the Occoquan are more worthy then the benefactors of the Shenandoah.

There is no constitutional provision for taking money from citizens to ensure yacht clubs, boat enthusiasts and tourism beneficiaries can take advantage of a river inlet. If they wish to make money from, or use, the Occoquan, then they should put up the necessary funds to do so.

I can't fathom how we got to the point in our country where folks feel entitled to pursue their leisure activities at the taxpayer expense. Our representatives frequently state that "if they don't bring this money back to their states, it would just go to other states." This is akin to a bank robber saying that "if he didn't rob the bank, someone else would have."

Whether this is true or not doesn't justify the action.

James Simpson lives in Lake Ridge and is executive director of The Limited Government Party.