The Sweet Bridge

The Gem Country Commissioners tell a sad story. A bridge needed to be built over a small river in the community of Sweet Idaho. The Commissioners figured they could build the bridge in about four months at a cost of $300,000. A federal grant was available so they decided to work with the federal government to save local tax dollars. The sad part is that with federal “help” the project took 14 months to complete and cost $1.3 million dollars. The bridge, with federal “help” ended up costing the local taxpayers more than if the local community had build and financed the bridge alone.

Think of what this $1 million of wasted resources could have been used for. It could have paid for as many as 20 teachers or heated hundreds of homes or vaccinated many of the children in the state. The Sweet Bridge is one example of thousands of examples that could be found. How many billions are being wasted by our federal government? In my opinion, the waste caused by the federal government is a national disgrace. It is time that this wastefulness ends.