Golden Fleece Award Nominee

James Hanley on Dec 30th 2008

Former senator William Proxmire used to give out “Golden Fleece” awards to government spending he thought wasteful. (Oh, if only he’d used taxpayer dollars to make real plaques to hand out!) Here’s my own nominee, spotted while driving through northern Indiana earlier this year.
Highway of Vice Presidents

Could anything be a bigger waste of money than honoring vice presidents?

Filed in The Bureau

10 Responses to “Golden Fleece Award Nominee”

  1. # Stones Cry Out - If they keep silent… » Things Heard: e47v2on 30 Dec 2008 at 9:34 am

    [...] Really scraping the bottom of the barrel. [...]

  2. # Scott Hanleyon 30 Dec 2008 at 10:07 am

    As it turns out, abstinence-only sex education.

  3. # Jim Andersonon 30 Dec 2008 at 12:11 pm

    I nominate Lonngren Pass near Hoquiam, Washington. Elevation 47 feet.

  4. # James Hanleyon 30 Dec 2008 at 1:26 pm

    J. Anderson,

    I must respectfully disagree. A 47 foot is absolutely hilarious! It’s so ridiculous that it really ought to be marked. And I thank you for the photo link–you made my day.

  5. # James Kon 30 Dec 2008 at 2:16 pm

    Could anything be a bigger waste of money than honoring vice presidents?

    How about a highway honouring defeated vice presidential candidates?

  6. # James Hanleyon 30 Dec 2008 at 2:25 pm

    50 points to James K. for best topper so far.

  7. # Matt Huismanon 30 Dec 2008 at 3:50 pm

    In the spirit of Jim Anderson’s 47′ pass, the highest point in Illinois is Charles Mound. That’s right, a friggin mound.

    Here’s a photo of the Charles Mound sign, which, I think, captures the significance of this landmark quite well.

  8. # Seamuson 31 Dec 2008 at 9:43 am

    Proxmire’s Golden Fleece award, IIRC, was given for *federal* government projects that wasted money. This has got to be Indiana state money at work. (And frankly, not that much of it. It’s not like they *built* the road to honor vice presidents; they just put up a few signs on existing highways.)

    But yeah, it was a stupid idea. My bet is that it started out as a proposal to honor native son Dan Quayle, and that some powerful Democrat said that the state would honor Quayle over his dead body, so some genius came up with the idea of compromising by honoring *all* VPs.

  9. # James Hanleyon 31 Dec 2008 at 11:02 am

    Seamus,

    You are right about the Golden Fleeces. Of course much state highway money comes from the Feds. But either way, I thought it made a good framing device.

    I agree that honoring former Rep/Senator/Veep Dan Quayle probably had something to do with it. The section of highway I was on is in his old House District even.

  10. # Matt Huismanon 31 Dec 2008 at 11:19 am

    It’s so named because 3 of the 5 VPs from Indiana were from towns along IN-9 (including Quayle).

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