This Time Around, Bush Recommends 40 Percent Cutback In Amtrak Budget

[jpak]

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=5093b6ce-1148-40fa-b100-eb3e2fe2ac56

President Bush's proposed budget, released Monday, recommends cutting Amtrak's budget by nearly 40 percent, a move that has become an annual volley between Bush and a Congress that has repeatedly reinstated the money.

The president's proposal suggests a budget of $800 million for Amtrak — a cut of $525 million that the proposal says is “a significant but necessary cut to the railroad's federal subsidy.”

The proposal says the bulk of those funds would be used for capital investments to continue making improvements to the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak's busiest route with more than 9 million passengers in fiscal year 2006.

The New Haven train station, located on that route, was Amtrak's 12th-busiest in 2006, according to the company, selling 631,596 tickets.

<more>

[displacedtexan]

1. Of course! Gas-guzzling cars are the only way!

Anyone who believes anything an oil man says about transportation is an idiot.

[redwitch]

2. He's never used public transportation.

So he is, as usual, clueless. I think one of his biggest flaws is his striking lack of empathy, inherited from mommy dearest.

[tandot]

3. Shit. I am taking the Amtrak to and from work every day.

on some days, it is hard to find a seat. They can't add another car because they are already short in funding.

I guess I have to go back to driving in my car and polluting.

What a bullshit.

[TooBigaTent]

4. So, the flyover states (Bush's base) lose the train while those NE Corridor Dems

get to keep theirs.

What are you thinking, Georgie?

[gateley]

5. That just doesn't make sense -- Amtrack nor the other services he's

cutting funding for. How does he he expect our country to RUN?

I guess it DOES make sense if you're looking to fund the war (and planning for more?) not to mention shutting up the masses with a "rebate" so he can
extend the tax cut to his pals.

Our country is out of control.

[kestrel91316]

8. He doesn't WANT our country to "run" - at least not the government.

This is all part of the plan to sabotage government and make it seem useless and incompetent so Americans will go along with the plan to privatize EVERYTHING.

I call it treason. I sure wish everybody else would wake up and see it for what it is.

[Dead_Parrot]

12. Of course the country will run...

With no trains, gasoline beyond reach of most people's pockets, and 48-hour anal probes before you can fly, how else will you get to work?

Look on the bright side, you'll all be really fit.

;)

[kestrel91316]

6. Gotta pay for the Waronterra(TM) somehow........

[haroldgiowa]

7. I would like to see AMTRAK expand

I would like to see train service expanded form out lying areas to major commerce centers. There will come a day where traveling any distance, a car will not be economical nor ecological. If we truly believe in a clean environment use of cars must go down.

[tandot]

9. I totally forgot to recommend this...

[Joanne98]

10. He better not get it!

[Scriptor Ignotus]

11. I don't get Amtrak

how can it be more expensive than a plane ticket? somebody please explain this to me. I live in the Northeast and I've seen the prices...

[Stinky The Clown]

13. I JUST got off an AMTRAK train between Philly and Baltimore

AMTRAK, to my mind, is the ONLY way to travel in the Northeast Corridor. It is, very literally, the very fastest was, door to door, between DC and NYC and all points between. Also the most civilized. No DHS goons sniffing your crotch and pawing through your luggage and patting you down like a murder suspect.

It is also the greenest way to travel short of walking or a bike.

Fuck George Bush and his oil baron buddies and his science denying cohorts. We need MORE trains, not less. Trains like these (The TGV and the Shinkansen):