Murtha Gets Earmark for Murtha Airport

This has been making the rounds, but the Washington Post has a detailed article about how Congressman Jack Murtha has gotten hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, and most recently an earmark for a backup runway, for the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.

One traveler at the airport even finds it absurd,

"Doesn't it seem kind of ridiculous to have a motorized carousel for the baggage claim when 15 people get off the airplane?" he said. "It's obvious: There's not enough population to justify this place."

A spokesman for Murtha claims that the airport is more than just a monument to Murtha, and will help with economic development and attract new businesses to the area. But the article notes how Murtha has been getting federal funding for the airport since 1998. Shouldn't we be seeing the economic benefits of the earmarks by now?

By the way, you may have heard Pennsylvania has a whole lot of "structurally deficient bridges" and highways that are falling apart - perhaps we should stop taking taxpayer dollars away from that to build backup runways at airports to nowhere.