RALEIGH – U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Lumberton Democrat, represents North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District stretching from Fayetteville to Wilmington and encompassing most of the southeastern corner of the state. He is among that shrinking pool of House Democrats who are honest-to-goodness moderates, and was just identified as the North Carolina Democrat most likely to buck party-line votes in Congress (Walter Jones snagged the honor among Republican members).

Unfortunately, McIntyre has just introduced a truly horrid bill in the House. It would create a federal “Southeast Crescent Authority” to provide taxpayer money to development projects in distressed counties in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The money would go for such things as infrastructure, education, health care, and “leadership development.” According to the congressman’s press office, 71 of North Carolina’s 100 counties would be “distressed” enough to qualify for federal aid.

Oh, where to start. Why is financing “leadership development” in Wilmington, North Carolina the responsibility of taxpayers in Wilmington, Delaware? Where is the authority in the federal constitution for compelling folks in Fayetteville, Arkansas to pay for the public schools of Fayetteville, North Carolina? And why should counties in coastal North Carolina experiencing relatively healthy growth be subsidized at the expense of residents in Eastern Tennessee counties with double-digit unemployment rates?

I think the problem with McIntyre’s silly “Southeast Crescent Authority” idea – concocted, he helpfully points out, with help from faculty at East Carolina University (who obviously have too much time on their hands) – can best be summarized by quoting his press release:

“America’s last big area of economic distress not being addressed by a special federal funding program is the portion of the southeastern United States that lies outside of the borders of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the Delta Regional Authority. Under McIntyre’s bill, the Southeast Crescent Authority (SECA) will be organized and administered in a manner much like the ARC.”

The last time I checked, the ARC hasn’t ended poverty in Appalachia. More often than not, it has degenerated into traditional pork-barrel politics. Moreover, I know plenty of folks from Lumberton, Wilmington, Fayetteville, and elsewhere in Southeastern North Carolina, and I doubt they would welcome the comparison between their slice of heaven and Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta.