House Proceeding 11-06-09 on Nov 6th, 2009 :: 5:13:35 to 5:18:29
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5:13:35 to 5:13:55( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: federal government for them to send back or disperse, they always whack a little piece of it off as they go by. mr. hoekstra: they whack a little piece off, it goes in this bureaucracy. then they allocate it according to people who may be more powerful than others. that's why your state and my state, why we're donor states. and then they start, you know,

5:13:35 to 5:18:29( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Peter Hoekstra

5:13:56 to 5:14:17( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: at one point in time it was to build interstate highway system. today that money is used for a kinds of things. that money now comes back to michigan, we've got to put up matching funds and two years ago the money came back and had to go to highway enhancement. you kind of look at it and go, what's highway enhancement? our governor figured out working

5:14:18 to 5:14:39( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: with the department of you shall use this money for highway enhancement, yet rather than improving our interstate highway system by, you know, expanding capacity, perhaps putting on a new int perhaps extending it into an area where we need it extended, the shall meant you shall build a turtle fence and

5:14:40 to 5:15:01( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: what's a turtle fence? it's exactly -- in arizona you probably don't have many turtles. mr. franks: we don't have many turtles. mr. hoekstra: in michigan we've got quite a few. it was 400 -- $00,000 for you shall build a -- $400,000 and you shall build a turtle fence and nouse it for an interchange, you shall not use

5:15:02 to 5:15:22( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: it to fill pot holes, you shall use it to build a turtle fence. i didn't know what a turtle fence was. i had an idea. but i asked. and a turtle fence is exactly what with it's intended to do or what you would think when you hear the term. a turtle fence is intended to keep turtles from crossing the

5:15:23 to 5:15:44( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: highway. mr. franks: we need a rattle snake fence in arizona. mr. hoekstra: well, i don't know -- in michigan -- and i don't know if a snake can go over a fence or not, but in michigan they decided to make sure that this fence would be turtle proof, to make sure that no turtle would go over the fence. they built it about three fe

5:15:45 to 5:16:06( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: high and then they put one of these round things over the top of it, three or four inch diameter, to make sure that for those turtles that were climbing turtles, they couldn't climb and climb over the fence. the irony of whole thing is, i still drive that road and i drive it quite often and i still see turtles that have been hit by cars.

5:16:07 to 5:16:27( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: and you say, now, how can that be? we've spent all of this money, we spent $400,000 to build this turtle fence and to study it. why are there still turtles being hit on that highway? and then you think about it and you think about it and it's like, i know why.

5:16:28 to 5:16:49( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: because this protects the fence because they can't get to the highway. but it's really a bad deal for the turtles that were fenced in. they have nowhere to go. they can't get and so most of their living area now is, you know, the median and

5:16:50 to 5:17:10( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: a little bit of land on each side of the highway before you get to the fence but for the turtles that are in the fenced in area, they can't get to the river anymore because that's fenced in and they can't get out anywhere else. the only place they can go, stay move at all they get on the

5:17:11 to 5:17:31( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: road. so it really didn't work that well. so the federal government in its infinite wisdom saying, you shall spend it on a turtle fence and people said, why are you bringing this up in the context of health care? why are you and ent talking about this? we'll see the same kind of decisions in health care.

5:17:32 to 5:17:52( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: the money will come here and it will not be fairly distributed to the states. just like you're a donor state and we are a donor state and there are other states that are getting an unfair share, the same thing is going to happen to health care and one of these days a congressman from michigan is going to come back home and someone's going to say, you know, i was traveling through

5:17:53 to 5:18:13( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: west virginia, we got sick and why are their hospitals and why do they have suc care in their facilities? they're so much better than mich and the answer will be, well, you know, over the last 0 years of this pelosi health -- 30 years of this pelosi health care, west virginia got $1.74 back for every dollar that they

5:18:14 to 5:18:29( Edit History Discussion )

Peter Hoekstra: spent in taxes and michigan and arizona, they got 83 cents. there will be an inequity in health care and then the other thing is we'll start spending it on foolish things because people here in washington will all have their pet projects, whether it's