House Committee Votes To Cut Funding For Amtrak

[carpro]

Guess we should either stop repairing roads and the Interstate system as well. They have never turned a profit. Guess we could make all roads toll roads and those that do not turn a profit should, using your logic, be closed.

To the contrary, interstate highways are used by every citizen in the country and maintained by the states. Amtrak is used by almost none in comparison.

Shut it down!

 

[Crabtownboy]

To the contrary, interstate highways are used by every citizen in the country and maintained by the states. Amtrak is used by almost none in comparison.

Shut it down!

No, you are a GOP big business capitalist. So shut down the roads that cannot turn a profit with tolls. After all you conservatives keep screaming that we need government out of our lives. So out of our roads would be getting them out of part of our lives also.

Shut the roads down and make people use trains and public transportation. There is no inalienable right to you having a highway at your convenience.

Typical of so called conservatives, cut everything except what affects them.

This is not conservatism, it is simply mean-spirited.

 

[Revmitchell]

Crabby is mad again.

 

[matt wade]

Crabby, if we made all roads toll roads you would then complain that only the rich could travel and we were limiting the poor's ability to work outside their zip code. You'd complain that we limited the poor to lower quality healthcare only available in their zip code.

 

[carpro]

Crabby is mad again.

Yep. That last one of his was one of the dumbest in a while.

Can't see the difference between highways that serve a legitimate public service for everyone and a railroad that serves only a political purpose for just a very few.

 

[Revmitchell]

Can't see the difference between highways that serve a legitimate public service for everyone and a railroad that serves only a political purpose for just a very few.

He can, he is not really that stupid, he just refuses to acknowledge it. It does give a picture of his inability to see. Dishonesty does that.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

None of it should be funded by the government. It should never have been federalized. If Amtrak can't make a profit, it should be shut down or sold to someone else. Get the government out of the railroad business. Don't keep pouring good money after bad.

End of story.

Only an idiot would disagree with this.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

Guess we should either stop repairing roads and the Interstate system as well. They have never turned a profit. Guess we could make all roads toll roads and those that do not turn a profit should, using your logic, be closed.

Roads don't turn a profit ?

That is the dumbest thing I will hear all day.

 

[carpro]

He can, he is not really that stupid, he just reuses to acknowledge it. It does give a picture of his inability to see. Dishonesty does that.

Besides the interstate highway system is paid for and maintained by the people who use it, through fuel taxes. Amtak is paid for and maintained by everyone for the benefit of very few.

Shut it down.

 

[OnlyaSinner]

The OP was one of the most repugnant examples of trying to use human tragedy for political gain that I ever hope to see. And later on we read this gem from the same source:

"The founder is wrong."

Stated in reference to the man credited with getting Amtrak running in the 1970s, who criticized the current system for following the political clout rather than the market needs. Well, he's undoubtedly a rich white man, and thus HAS to be wrong, right? And (hyperbole alert!) CTB knows more about Amtrak and railroads in general than this guy ever did or ever will, and thus can make such a stark comment without offering any supportive evidence.


We all know the GOP does not care about the living, other than the super rich.

Reminds me of a comment made by a newspaper columnist back during the Lincoln Administration:
"It ain't so much people being ignorant; it's them knowing things that ain't so."

 

[Crabtownboy]

Roads don't turn a profit ?

That is the dumbest thing I will hear all day.

Show me now any road in Montana returns a profit to the State budget.

64% of Montana's road funding comes from the Federal Government. Why should I be taxed to maintain Montana's highways? Why should anyone outside Montana be taxes to help Montana?

http://leg.mt.gov/content/Publications/fiscal/FR-2015/Section C/5401-summary.pdf

 

[sag38]

Maybe if we quit giving him something to drink he will quit wetting the bed and go away......

 

[Rolfe]

There is technology available that would override this type of human error. It is on all subway trains in DC and other cities. It would not cost that much per-locomotive and would save lives and property.

But the GOP doesn't see the need of safety of passengers.

Obama could have mandated this with an executive order, but he did not. Another example of the Democratic Party's hatred of working-class commuters.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Besides the interstate highway system is paid for and maintained by the people who use it, through fuel taxes.

Wrong ... again.

“They’re Already Paid For”
The U.S. government largely paid for the system’s original construction, but owns virtually none if it today. States are generally left “holding the bag” to pay for the next 50 years of this vital system. What is worse, government expenditures today average less than 45 percent, and the Highway Trust Fund has run dry at least three times in the last 4 years. Recently, there has been increasing discussion about adding tolls for a new source of funding, but the biggest Congressional argument against that is, “the roads are already paid for.”

http://cdmsmith.com/en-US/Insights/Funding-Future-Mobility/Exit-6-Aging-Interstates.aspx

And your dearly beloved GOP wants the States to assume all costs.

The Interstate Highway System is often praised as one of President Eisenhower's greatest achievements. At the time the largest public works program in American history, its 41,000 miles of highway cost $25 billion to construct in 1956. Today, it's still a massive, centrally-planned network of freeways with a few regional toll roads sprinkled throughout. Ninety percent of its budget is supposed to be covered by the federal government's Highway Trust Fund. And that's where the problem lies.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the fund's budget shortfall will be about $15 billion every year. You can pretty easily chalk this up to the fact that the fund's coffers are sustained almost exclusively through the federal gas tax. Even as fuel efficiency has improved and Americans have cut back on driving, the tax itself hasn't been increased since 1993.

To solve the issue, Democrats want to raise the tax. Many Republicans want to slowly phase out the federal funding altogether and turn it over to the states. I think Republicans could actually attract Democrats to their position, provided a few crucial policy choices are made.

http://theweek.com/articles/442326/time-abolish-interstate-highway-system

 

[Zaac]

I don't watch Fox News, listen to Hannity, etc. I can think clearly for myself.

I didn't say you had to watch Hannity or any of the others. The same talking points get passed around by the same "political conservatives" on here, on tv,on the radio, in church, in neighborhoods,, and throughout the internet.

You're repeating points you've heard somebody else say. And I know because I've heard them say the same thing.

So stop trying to act like the GOP doesn't have talking points just as the Dems do. :laugh:

 

[targus]

How come Obama and the dems didn't fix it when they got the 800 billion dollars for "shovel ready" projects?

Oh... that's right - they used it to buy union member votes instead.

The stimulus money laundering scam.

So of course we should definitely give them more money.

 

[carpro]

And your dearly beloved GOP wants the States to assume all costs.

I think that's a great idea!!!!! Especially since the feds have hardly paid anything in many years, except for distributing the fuel tax back to the states.

Now, back on topic. Shut down amtrak! Cut off all funding. The sooner the better.

 

[sag38]

I didn't say you had to watch Hannity or any of the others. The same talking points get passed around by the same "political conservatives" on here, on tv,on the radio, in church, in neighborhoods,, and throughout the internet.

You're repeating points you've heard somebody else say. And I know because I've heard them say the same thing.

So stop trying to act like the GOP doesn't have talking points just as the Dems do. :laugh:

I came to these conclusions on my own without anyone's help. I am not repeating what I have heard no matter what you may think. :thumbsup:

 

[Revmitchell]

I came to these conclusions on my own without anyone's help. I am not repeating what I have heard no matter what you may think. :thumbsup:

See he does not have any comments from his own thoughts. He just says the opposite of what someone has said to him. Not worth a response.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

Show me now any road in Montana returns a profit to the State budget.

64% of Montana's road funding comes from the Federal Government. Why should I be taxed to maintain Montana's highways? Why should anyone outside Montana be taxes to help Montana?

http://leg.mt.gov/content/Publications/fiscal/FR-2015/Section C/5401-summary.pdf

Barking up the wrong tree, Crabtownboy. I don't support our roads being maintained by the feds. It comes with too many strings attached. Sorry, wrong argument.