The $600 Million Government Waste

A North Carolina congressman continues to push for a controversial $600 million road that few people want and nobody needs because it will supposedly stimulate the local economy.

The funding will come from the financially strapped National Park Service and the project would tremendously damage one of the nation’s most popular forests, Smoky Mountains National Park which lies on the North Carolina-Tennessee border.

Besides wide opposition to the proposed and unnecessary 30-mile road, there appears to be a conflict of interest with the congressman, Charles Taylor, who just happens to run the subcommittee that controls the budget of the U.S. Department of the Interior. That government agency is comprised of eight bureaus, among them the National Park Service. In other words, the Department of the Interior must approve the funding and Taylor runs the committed that controls that agency’s money.

Among those highly opposed to the costly road is Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. The North Carolina Conservation Network calls it the Road to Nowhere and a boondoggle for American taxpayers.