Our kids will be stuck with the bill for the Stadium Boulevard bridge project

What seems to be very transparent is the political nature of the recent $13.9 million funding of the East Stadium Boulevard bridge “delivered” by Rep. Dingell. Isn’t it amazing how this happened two weeks before the midterm election.

What is not so transparent is source of the funding and who will pay the bill. For every dollar we send to Washington approximately 80 cents is returned to Michigan. This means that we sent 17.4 million of our tax dollars to Washington to get the 13.9 million dollar grant for the bridge. But the federal government is broke and the deficit is 13.6 trillion as of October 18, 2010 - so where did Dingell get the money?

He certainly can’t borrow it from the Social Security Trust fund, given that he is one of two sitting representatives who voted to make these funds available to the US general fund many years ago and has already spent the money. The unfunded liabilities in Social Security and Medicare is $110 trillion as of Oct 18.

So where is the money coming from? It is coming from your kids and grandkids. They are the ones who will be paying for it. So after the bridge is repaired and you use it, make sure you thank and apologize to your kids for sticking them with the bill.

Ben H Colmery III Ann Arbor