Great Tolerance For Lunacy

Americans have a great tolerance for lunacy, as evidenced by the money Rep. John Murtha has plowed into the largely empty airport that he named after himself:

Located outside a small Pennsylvania city, John Murtha airport may not see many passengers. But it’s seen plenty of arrivals of tax dollars from Washington, most recently economic stimulus funds.

The airport offers three commercial flights. In between the arrivals and departures, airport officials admit there are few faces around the facility.
“When the flights are coming in, there are people. Other than that, it’s empty,” said Scott Voelker, manager of the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.

But one face is everywhere. Rep. John Murtha, the airport’s namesake, is hard to miss.

Considered one of “the kings of pork” on Capitol Hill by taxpayer watchdog groups, the 19th-term Pennsylvania Democrat has piloted almost $200 million from Washington to Murtha airport. Much of the funding has come in the form of legislative earmarks that are attached to bills before Congress.

Here’s ABC News on the subject:

You’ve heard of the Bridge to Nowhere. You might call this the Airport for Nobody.

The John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport has an impressive $18 million runway made of reinforced concrete that’s big enough to land any airplane in North America. The airport also has a $7 million air traffic control tower, a $14 million hanger and $8 million radar. Most of the time, the only thing the airport doesn’t have is airplanes.

An average of just 20 people a day flew out of the Murtha Airport last year. But, the airport was just awarded more federal money — $800,000 in stimulus funds to repave an alternate runway.
…
On a visit to the airport, ABC News found it virtually deserted, with an empty restaurant, vacant lounges and empty runways. An air traffic controller was twiddling his thumbs.

Murtha refused multiple ABC News requests for an interview, but airport manager Scott Voekler said the airport provides an important service to the economically devastated Johnstown area.

“It is tremendously important because when you bring companies in, you bring jobs,” Voekler said.

We’ve plowed $200 million into this worthless airport.  That’s $200 million dollars to dig a hole and fill it back up.  And Obama wants credit for trying to save $100 million?  Obviously, we’ve lost our minds.   (h/t Instapundit)

7 Notes/ Hide

  1. iambal reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    but hey, Murtha gets to have his own airport.
  2. jeffmiller posted this
,