LANSING, Mich. –Michigan’s construction industry came close to getting an infusion of up to $1.7 billion in money to fix the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. But what’s the old saying? Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Dismissal and some derision, from everyone from postal and construction union leaders to congressional Democrats to even the Radical Right Heritage Foundation, greeted House GOP leaders’ latest scheme to pay for fixing the nation’s highways, by killing Saturday postal service and diverting the “saved” dollars to road repairs.