RealJustme wrote:And the GOP voted to cut Amtrak funding right after the crash.
So tossing money at the problem is going to stop engineers from speeding? Tax payer's already subsidize $60.00 for every Amtrak ticket sold, what about people riding the trains pay the full cost of their own tickets? If they want 100% safety then just add the costs to their tickets. I agree with the GOP, get the bills off of the tax payer's back.
Amtrak's annual revenue around $2.8 billion while consuming $48 billion in federal subsidies. The system has never earned a profit and all it's routes lose money. Private ran trains receive no subsidies and return a profit, go figure. Time to privatize Amtrak.
Justme retorts with the with the typical mindless knee jerk conservative response, which completely misses the point.
So tossing money at the problem is going to stop engineers from speeding?
With funding safety upgrades to the system could have been made to the system. The GOP voted to cut spending by 20% which would have cut about 10 billion dollars in funding. Why don't you check your math and tell everybody how much ticket prices would have to increase to make up the difference? The democrats proposed 800 million for positive train control which was promptly rejected by the GOP.
Bridge, road, and tunnel infrastructure modernization spending is estimated to cost into the trillions. I suppose we can make that up with increased gas taxes...right?
Instead the GOP continues to push bullshit pork barrel defense spending on projects that will benefit military contractors in their home districts under the conservative guise that it's better to fight terrorists on foreign soil rather than on US soil. The Iraq war is estimated to cost 6 trillion dollars when it's all done and over. No WMDs found or evidence that Saddam was collaborating with terrorists. You don't hear conservatives screaming that trillions were being thrown at overturning a government that was no threat to the USA.
The US has an infrastructure which was once considered the gold standard. And now the GOP derides efforts to modernize the system by refusing to fund efforts to make the system more safer. The Chinese have budgeted to spend 100 billion in an effort to improve their rail system, while the GOP wants to turn the US into the laughing stock of the world...
- By johnforbes
- By brandon