McCain Slams Congress for Bridge Collapse

John McCain, a proponent of earmark reform in Congress, takes a shot at his esteemed colleagues and gives them some of the blame for the Minneapolis bridge collapse:

Republican John McCain said Saturday that Congress could share in the blame for the Minnesota bridge collapse because lawmakers diverted billions of dollars in transportation money from road work to pet projects.
"I think perhaps you can make the argument that part of the responsibility lies with the Congress of the United States," the Arizona senator said.

McCain said Congress spent roughly $20 billion on special-interest projects when it approved a new highway bill, signed into law by President Bush.

"We spent approximately $20 billion of that money on pork barrel, earmark projects," said McCain. "Maybe if we had done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country. Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."

While I admire his willingness to point fingers at his free-spending colleagues, it was not a lack of money that brought the bridge down, but a lack of priority. The bridge had been recently inspected and Minnesota's share of transportation funding had gone up significantly in recent years. The money was there, it's just that the people in charge of it had other priorities (as pointed out here).

And why are all the fingers pointed toward the Federal government? This bridge was under the control of state and local agencies and it should have been their priority to keep it standing. Since Katrina every disaster is now assumed to have Federal responsibility while the locals seem to get off scott free for their lack of attention to matters.