It’s been a while since our last “and a pony” post, calling out bills in Congress that overpromise what our federal legislature can do.

“Congress is gonna give you a pony, too, sweetheart.” Get it?

Anyway, a clear candidate for the “and a pony” designation was introduced in the House yesterday. It’s H.R. 3725, a bill whose aim is, quite simply, “to relieve traffic congestion.”

Well! Thank goodness that’s done! Now if someone would just introduce a bill to cure cancer.

Actually, the “National Highway Chokepoint Congestion Relief Act” would create a Department of Transportation program to give grants to state departments of transportation in areas where traffic was really bad.

Strange set of incentives there, don’t you think? If a state fails to maintain its traffic systems well, it gets “free” money from the feds—that’s actually money from taxpayers in their own state and others, with local officials relieved of the burden of raising taxes.

So if I were a state official looking at this program, I would immediately stop any efforts to improve traffic in order to collect the federal handout. (Well, not immediately. Slowly and quietly, though . . . .)

Congress to the rescue! It’s going to solve those traffic problems, and, yes, get you that pony you always wanted.

Here’s the current vote on H.R. 3725, the National Highway Chokepoint Congestion Relief Act. Click to vote, comment, learn more or edit the wiki article about the bill.