Trump pushes Republicans to oppose crucial New York-New Jersey tunnel project

[highplainsdem]

Source: WaPo

President Trump is pushing congressional Republicans not to fund a crucial infrastructure project — a long-delayed plan to build a new rail tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey — setting up a confrontation that could complicate passage of a massive government spending bill this month.

Trump personally appealed to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) this week to target federal funding for the $30 billion Gateway project, which would construct a tunnel into New York’s Penn Station to supplement two aging tubes that are at risk of failing in the coming years.

The project is widely considered to be among the most pressing and most expensive infrastructure needs in the country, and state and local leaders have long sought federal funding to jump-start work on it. But the Trump administration threw the project into doubt late last year by casting aside an agreement reached during the Obama administration that would have the federal government pick up half the project’s cost.

And now, according to four officials familiar with the discussions, Trump has taken a personal interest in making sure no federal dollars flow to a project that is considered critical to his hometown’s long-term economic prosperity.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-pushes-republicans-to-oppose-crucial-new-york-new-jersey-tunnel-project/2018/03/02/06987446-1e6c-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html

[pazzyanne]

1. Trash the wall and build the tunnel.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. Putin must not want it!

[Weed Man]

21. Knock it off

Not everything has his hands.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

22. The fuck it doesn't.

[Cha]

33. You mean putin

must want it?

[pangaia]

3. Revenge

just get revenge.. doesn't matter on whom or for what...

[bitterross]

14. You may be on to something. He doesn't need it personally and NYC fucked him in 2016.

It wouldn't be a surprise at all that he wanted to screw NYC for not supporting him and voting for him in the election.

[pangaia]

20. It is what he does.

And for what it is worth, this tunnel is SERIOUSLY, seriously needed.

It is not just some get rich quick scheme for some contractors or a political football.

[bettyellen]

27. Chris Christie stopped this project before and instead funneled the money to areas of NJ where ...

Friends had financial intesrests. The PA would be involved- maybe Trump sees them as uncontrollable now that the assholes who helped Christie screw with The Geo washington Bridge are gone? It’s about the money.

[marylandblue]

4. So much for infrastructure week

[brush]

12. I think trump owns some land on Manhattan's west side and the rail tunnel just might...

disrupt his plans.

[SCantiGOP]

5. Why?

Anybody knows why he is opposing this? Sounds beneficial to his personal interests which is what normally what drives him.

[Jazzgirl]

6. Revenge.

He's just exacting revenge now. That's his goal.

**Must. Get. Away. From. This Page.** I am so depressed reading all about drumpf's BS it's not even funny.

[SergeStorms]

9. He must be planning....

on selling his Crown Jewel, Trump Tower, in NYC. If he were planning on staying in New York he'd have no problem with it. Either he's planning on moving to other "public housing", say........Leavenworth.......or he'll be moving to Mar-ma-Lado full time, OR Malaria is going to get the Trump Tower in the divorce. There are any number of reasons, but I think it's one of those.

New York and New Jersey are both Democratic states. They didn't vote for him in 2016, and if this numb-skull is planning on running in 2020 (good luck with that, Donnie!) he knows he'd be better off spending the money in 'purple' states.

[SCantiGOP]

13. You might be right

Somebody else downstream said he just hated New York since the people he was jealous of always saw him as just a crude hustler.

[GWC58]

31. They were right and he is

[StevieM]

24. I don't think it necessarily means that he plans on leaving NY. I think Trump enjoys hurting people

who he sees as his enemies. And they have to "earn" the right to public dollars by voting Democrat. Remember, we are in an era where Republicans like Ted Cruz wanted to deny money for Hurricane Sandy relief. And Hurricane Katrina funds were not distributed equitably.

Trump may actually leave NY and go to Florida full time. I just don't think that he would refrain from screwing over the state even if he planned on staying.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Obama Legacy Derangement Syndrome. tRump is obsessed with erasing as much as he can. . . . nt

[Chipper Chat]

28. He is opposing it because

Rudy is not the Mayor.

[jmowreader]

32. Easy: Both ends are in blue states

It is the avowed policy of this monster to impose collective punishment on any state that didn’t break for him in 2016.

[Botany]

7. Trump is working 24/7 to destroy America because that is what Putin wants.

He and his kin are evil and the GOP, parts of the media, and people like Eric Prince
who worked w/Russia to rig the elections are like any Americans who helped the
Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.

Eugene Robinson speaks for me. https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016202562

[pangaia]

15. Yup.

[Danmel]

8. He knows New Yorkers hate him

And he especially is hated in NYC where he so desperately wants to be worshipped. It kills him so he has to punish us.

[Angry Dragon]

11. stupid, stupid, stupid

[pecosbob]

16. I'm sure he already has financing in place

I imagine he'll sell Oleg Deripaska the rights to build a new tollway into the city named after Donald J. Gump, of course...and then none of the contractors will get paid. Next he'll he'll have one of his cabinet stooges start eminent domaining parts of NYC. Or is just pre-emptive retaliation for the NY and NJ state indictments he knows are coming?

[sharedvalues]

17. Tunnel is CRITICAL to NJ/NY economy

A huge number of NJ commuters pass through this tunnel. It is essential. It is banana-republic level idiocy for us to not fund it, all so we can give tax breaks to billionaires and CEOs.

[C Moon]

18. My first thought was that he needs to pay someone off to get this privately funded.

[riversedge]

19. Both are Blue states--well Clinton won NJ! Trump is vindictive.

[Bengus81]

23. LOL...I thought Trump was pimping that project just a few weeks ago....

as the great things that could happen with his infrastructure bill.

[SunSeeker]

25. K & R for exposure of human wrecking ball.

[Thomas Hurt]

26. wow, the sitting fascist must not be getting his cut.......gonna screw em like Jared did Qatar.

[John Fante]

29. The tri-state area is responsible for 10% of our GDP.

The more efficiently it runs, the more efficiently our nation as a whole runs. Stymieing this project would be idiotic.

[VMA131Marine]

30. That tunnel is not just critical to NYC

The entire Amtrak Northeast Corridor depends on it. The airlines might be happy if it shuts down though.