Bush government pumps billions into key election battlegrounds

WHETHER as loan guarantees for a shop in Ohio or a grant for a Florida power plant, the Bush administration is showering hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money on toss-up states in the presidential election.

Thu, 28 Oct, 2004 - 01:00

Charles Abbott, Washington

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, for example, went to Orlando, Florida, last week to announce a $235 million grant to help build a clean-burning power plant. The project “will account for more than 1,800 jobs,” he said.

Other recent awards were $46.7m for light rail in the Pittsburgh area; $17.9m to reduce aircraft noise at the Reno, Nevada, airport; $36,500 for a fire truck and ambulance in Minnesota, and $4.5m in guarantees for a shop near Cleveland.

The key presidential battleground states are Florida, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada and Ohio.

With Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico, West Virginia, and Missouri, they are expected to decide the November 2 election for President Bush or challenger Senator John Kerry. “This is a technique that has been used for many, many years,” said David Williams of Citizens Against Government Waste, referring to the ballyhooing of local awards.

“One of the good things that happened this year,” he said, to hold down questionable outlays, was that Congress has yet to approve funding for most parts of the government. The spending bills often earmark money for local projects and provide fodder for attack by good-government groups that object to “pork”, or excessive spending on local projects in return for political support. “That is a lot better hidden in agency budgets,” said Williams.

Budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense said the $140 billion corporate tax bill enacted by Congress this month, the biggest corporate tax overhaul in the United States in two decades, was filled with giveaways intended “to bribe swing states.”

The tax bill extended the fuel tax break for corn-derived ethanol, a popular political cause in the Midwest, and created a similar credit for biodiesel, most often made from soybeans.