President Bush, who has yet to veto a single bill, has threatened to veto any highway bill that exceeds $284 billion. The House came in on target. The Senate, how-ever, last week voted to allow its bill to exceed the president’s cap by $11 billion. When the two chambers reconcile their bills, the final tab is likely to be higher than what the president has said he will accept.

In the name of fiscal sanity, the president is willing to veto a major spending bill, yet shoved more tax cuts at Congress and recently got $82 billion in supplemental funding for the war and rebuilding efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s hard to argue against supporting our troops, but shouldn’t money for basics like ammunition and armor be part of the military’s overall budget, not a special request? Since this request isn’t part of the president’s budget, it won’t count against the budget deficit estimates. If the president is concerned about transportation spending, he would do better to encourage lawmakers to direct money to maintaining existing roads and bridges before building new ones just to satisfy the local constituency. According to a recent survey by the American Society of Civil Engineers, more than a quarter of the bridges in the United States are in need of repair. In Maine, a third are.

Yet, the House highway bill, which was crafted under the watchful eye of committee chairman Republican Donald Young of Alaska, contains more than 4,000 earmarks, special projects requested by state delegations. Maine got $73.5 million, or $57.65 per resident, in earmarks. Alaska got $720 million or $1,151 per resident (26 times the national average). This includes $10 million to alleviate traffic congestion in Anchorage and $223 million to construct a bridge to an island with 50 residents. For that price, every resident could get a really nice boat, maybe a wooden one made in Maine.

But even the most questionable projects will create jobs, which helps local economies.

Under the House version, which Rep. Michael Michaud helped negotiate, Maine stands to get more than $1 billion over the next six years, a $200 million increase over the last six-year appropriation, which given the rate of inflation isn’t a large boost. Included in the bill are $16 million for the replacement of the Waldo-Hancock Bridge and $8.5 million dollars for the new Calais-St. Stephen border crossing. It also includes $4 million to plan and build a north-south highway in Aroostook County, $2 million for the Penobscot Riverfront development in Bangor, $5.8 million to construct the Lewiston-Auburn downtown connector, and $400,000 for safety enhancements to the roads around the Eastern Piscataquis Industrial Park in Dover-Foxcroft.

The Senate crafts its bill in a different way, but these projects would likely still be included in its version. In addition, the Senate bill would direct slightly more money to Maine as part of its distribution formula.

Fiscal sanity is a worthy goal. But it shouldn’t be applied selectively.