Jim Campi or Aaron Taylor, 202-467-5300, both of Citizens Against Government WasteCitizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today condemned Vice President Al Gore's proposal to establish a national 3-digit hotline for traffic information. The Vice President intends to announce the plan at a news conference to day.
"The Vapid Veep is at it again," remarked CAGW President Thomas A. Schatz. "First, he dreams up a $50 million scheme to launch into space the world's first 'Earth-cam.' Now he wants taxpayers to pay for a national hotline to monitor urban traffic jams. Has he never heard of AM radio?"
According to press accounts, the Vice President's proposal calls for a national 3-digit traffic hotline similar to emergency "911" police and fire hotlines currently in use throughout the country. Although the cost of the hotline was not immediately available, it is part of an ambiguous, $1 billion Clinton administration plan to improve "livability" in the U.S.
"The Vice President seems blithely ignorant of the thousands of radio stations and hundreds of traffic hotlines that already monitor traffic conditions throughout the country," Schatz stated. "There is simply no reason for the federal government to get entangled in what is clearly a local issue."
In his prepared remarks, Vice President Gore declared, "a parent should not have to be saying good morning and good night to their child from a cell phone because they're stuck in traffic." Responding to Gore's remarks, Schatz stated, "this is an obvious attempt to pander to soccer moms and busy commuters. If this is how the Vice President plans to get his plodding presidential campaign off the ground, he should start looking for a better airline."
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CAGW is a 600,000-member nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and abuse in the federal government.
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