OPINION:
Congress has come to our rescue again — or has it? The Highway Trust Fund that Congress passed was meant to avert a collapse of our nation’s 42,000-mile network of interstate highways — but what kind of glasses did Congress wear to assess this apparent collapse? If the nation spends more than 25 percent of these “highway” funds on out-of-scope subways, streetcars, buses, and bicycle and nature paths, have we indeed been rescued?
Remove these extraneous funding players from the trust fund, components that are not part of the originally conceived fund. We as a nation need to treat our finances like we do our personal checkbooks (for those of us who balance our checkbooks). Besides, the trust fund was wisely designed to be transitioned to the states for local management, something Congress has to date refused to do.
Our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution with the obvious intent that the states should manage themselves. The states can do a much better job, with local constituent control, than Congress has ever done. Congress, you need to get out of the business of the American people.
STEVE KRISTIN
Alexandria
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