TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross

We're sitting on two trillion dollars?

June 7, 2012 @ 9:03 am (Updated: 9:22 am - 6/7/12 )

It sounded like a great idea:

"Back in 2005, Congress earmarked tax dollars for a futuristic magnetic levitation train across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas," says CBS's Sharyl Attkisson.

train

A levitation train. Because you want to cross the desert as fast as possible -- especially when it stands between you and the Liberace Museum.

"But a series of technical errors caused so many delays supporters abandoned the project. The $45 billion could sit around forever," says Attkisson.

What? Yes. Because the law says this money can only be spent on levitating trains, even if they never build them! And how about this one:

"$2.7 million tax dollars left over from an earmark for the 1996 Olympics," says Attkisson.

And which by law can only be spent ONLY on the 1996 Olympics, which means they'll being spending it, let's see...NEVER. Oh, correction, as soon as Doc Brown finally fixes his Time Machine.

These are just two examples. And according to Senator Tom Coburn, and he says these numbers are official, all this stuff adds up to $2 trillion unspent dollars being carried over to next year, a third of which isn't earmarked for anything.

So why doesn't he write a bill to spend it on jobs, or pay down the debt? Because he says such a bill would never get to the floor.

"They don't want to fight the political battle of saying, well he gaveth and he taketh away. They don't want that negative press," says Coburn.

What? Finding two trillion dollars would create negative press? Come on, really, why can't Congress get together and fix this?

"The encounter could create a time paradox that would unravel the very fabric of the space, time continuum and destroy the entire universe," warns Doc Brown.

Ok well, that's a good reason.

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Comments (14)


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  • ron prevost wrote...
    We don't need a time machine. We already have the taxes that will not die.
    June 7, 2012 8:33 am
    Your phone bill (land line, at least) still has a small tax for veterans of the Spanish/American was and cigarettes still help fund WWI.

    $2 TRILLION, you say ? But we can't use it ? But keep it ? .. As Alice said, it gets curiouser and curiouser. .. Curiouser, still, if that $2T is really just sitting, or is just on somebody's books.

    But PLEASE - do not give anyone any ideas. Harry Reed probably would want a levitation train (or just give him the money) for Los Vegas jobs.

    and $2.7M could put up quite a nice statue on Atlanta to, say, the Red Queen ? Or the Cheshire Cat.

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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Use it to pay down the last three months worth
    June 7, 2012 8:42 am
    of the national debt.

    En-tit-le-ments. Can't be a complete coincidence that the second portion of that word reads the way it does. We are a levitating train wreck in this country- with the group most glued to the (second portion of the word)by collecting old age and medical benefits typically yelling and screaming the loudest about our level of spending.

    We met the fiscal enemy, and it is us.

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  • kata wrote...
    Ms. Attkisson is one of the few real reporters left
    June 7, 2012 9:24 am
    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57448727/billions-in-tax-dollars-sitting-in-banks-unused/

    The video is very good. The train is just one of many problems.

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  • kata wrote...
    aaaaigh
    June 7, 2012 9:29 am
    ps. I am only on page 6 of the congressional report and I think I am going to lose my breakfast.
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  • Sean wrote...
    What planet are we on?
    June 7, 2012 9:48 am
    Does it not simply astound you beyond comprehension that we have national leaders who not only set-up arrangements like this but continue to tolerate them and DON'T FIX THEM??? Or maybe the bigger astonishment is that we as citizens continue to tolerate and elect them. Simply unbelievable...
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    I think it's Earth. But we can't really be sure if CD is defining things.
    June 7, 2012 10:57 am
    I had thought it was the Land of Oz, but it's certainly not Kansas - or most any other state - except maybe LaLa land or the Soviet of Seattle. But it all might be down a *rabbit* hole.

    In truth, I think the folks in the other Washington, Rs & Ds alike, find it all too easy just to move on, rather than cleaning up what previous congresses have passed. Only in America, apparently, can TWO trillion dollars become trivial. Maybe because, in the land of Oz, it's not 'real' money.

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  • ron prevost wrote...
    DC - not CD
    June 7, 2012 10:58 am
    I'm getting dislexic
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  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    1. spend it on jobs, or 2. pay down the debt
    June 7, 2012 9:57 am
    1. Owebama already tried that and as we all know, it didn't & doesn't work. 2. Owebmaba and the Dims would never allow that, even though they are responsible for it.
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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    That would still leave the Obama regime 3 TRILLION dollars in debt.
    June 7, 2012 11:14 am
    Actually that would us American taxpayers in debt.
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  • bora wrote...
    To Las Vegas. Fastest way to flash money down the toilet.
    June 7, 2012 1:22 pm
    That's the life is all about.
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  • rational wrote...
    Credit...err blame, to where blame is due...
    June 7, 2012 5:08 pm
    Well, it looks like the train idea was Harry Reid's...but Bush signed the bill...so plenty of blame to go around.

    That aside, if you want to stimulate the economy, give the money back to the tax payers...we can spend it FAR, FAR, FAR better than the government ever could. I believe that'd work out to about $15k per tax payer, the vast majority of which would spend that money.

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  • CH wrote...
    Thank you not so much "House Republican's" with helping out with . . . .
    June 7, 2012 6:15 pm
    "JOB'S". I would cry to if I was the speaker.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • fartforce1 wrote...
    should be considered fraud to know of this sort of thing and refuse to floor it.
    June 7, 2012 8:27 pm
    If the government is too weak to protect us from borrowing money that by law can never be spent instead of using it to pay down the national debt.....wait a minute, I bet as soon as the GOP takes the Whitehouse they will work with congress and the senate to find a way to use this money to pay down the debt, right? Right? Wrong!
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