As a WVians, let me assure you that the myth of Byrd the "pork" meister is, well, a myth.
In other states, road are built, etc. People expect this. In WV, something gets done and Byrd issues a PR that, using unknown secret techniques available only to a 90 year old HS dropout, he outsmarted everyone else in the Senate and tricked them all into building a road.
The reality?
- WV was the LAST state to complete its original allocation of interstate highways.
- WV was the ONLY state during the Cold War era to not have a military base of at least 500 active duty in it.
- Leaving out welfare, which goes where it goes based on "need", WV is, and always gotten less from the federal government than it pays in (as does most every state, since most federal spending goes down the welfare hole).
