Tancredo on pork — not exactly fiscally conservative

Today, Tom Tancredo responds to my column on earmarks. 

Tancredo’s defense of funding for local projects
Re: “Congress keeps its pets quiet,” July 9 David Harsanyi column.

David Harsanyi pointed out that I am attempting to obtain more than $200 million in federal funding for “pet projects” this year. What he neglected to mention is that some $180 million of that money would fund just three projects: completion of the voter-approved T-REX project ($80 million), work on the voter-approved West Corridor light-rail line ($40 million) and a new Denver-area Veterans Affairs hospital ($60 million).

I was also quite puzzled by Harsanyi’s implication that I somehow object to making this information (which is posted on my website) available to the public. After all, for the last several years I have often attempted to publicize it whenever I’ve helped to obtain funding for a local transportation, defense or conservation initiative. And while The Post rarely found such items newsworthy enough to report on in the past, we should all be pleased that this appears to be changing.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Littleton

I’m quite puzzled myself. First of all, there was no implication in the column that Tancredo objected to releasing his earmark requests — other than he had never released them before. And though I “neglected to mention” that $180 million of the over $200 million he asked for were to fund just three local projects, I’m not sure that fact makes his case for pork any stronger. If folks in Maryland are going to fund local Denver transportation then what stops Colorado money from funding Byrd Country or Bridges to Nowhere?

(Cross-posted with Gang of Four.)