Road Warriors

Congress goes into override for an $88 billion bill

The budget-busting highway bill was more than the troubled President could endure: "Have you looked at the condition of the Treasury, at the amount of money it contains, at the appropriations already made by Congress, at the amount of other unavoidable claims upon it?" That President was Andrew Jackson in 1830, and he had enough political clout to make his veto of the Maysville Road Bill stick. The graveled National Road that aroused Old Hickory's ire has, of course, evolved into today's 44,000-mile Interstate Highway System. But the 19th century conflict between pork barrel and public purse endures as a staple...

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