Congress created the TIGER grant program in 2009 to help the economy recover: TIGER stands for “transportation investment generating economic recovery.” The economy has recovered — the United States is now enjoying what some call the “longest bull market in Wall Street history” — so President Trump called for ending TIGER.
The House agreed, but some in the Senate want to keep it going. Instead of killing it, Maine Senator Susan Collins, who claims to be a Republican, wants to expand it. Her justification is that the program received 585 applications from state and local governments last year but was able to fund just 44, which demonstrates “the need and popularity of this program.” I wonder if she knows of any programs that give away hundreds of millions of dollars a year that aren’t popular.
(She also opposes reform of the air traffic control system, which she calls “a solution in search of a problem.” Because airports aren’t congested in Maine, so she must imagine they aren’t congested anywhere else.) Continue reading
