Barton praises imaginary earmark

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, made an odd argument in defense of earmarks at Thursday's unveiling of JPS' new patient tower in Fort Worth.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Barton pointed at the brand new five-story tower and said, "There is a reason that they're good and you're looking at it right here."

One problem: the patient tower was not the beneficiary of any earmarks.

JPS spokesman Robert Earley confirmed Friday that Barton at one point tried to get an earmark for the seven-level parking garage that was part of the patient tower project. In the end, neither the tower nor the parking garage received any federal funding.

-Aman Batheja

Comments

[Clay]

We're just lucky that Joe was with it enough to point toward the right tower instead of some other building.