Ridership on the Valley's Amtrak trains -- the San Joaquins -- rose last year, with a big jump in the traffic between Fresno and Bakersfield. A Bee business story Tuesday suggests higher gas prices may be the reason. Whatever the cause, it's good to see. California and especially the Valley were made for train travel, and more is better.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration, which tried to kill Amtrak outright last year, has proposed a new budget for this year of $900 million. That's a 30% cut from last year's budget. And it gets worse: Nearly half the money is tied to vague "discretionary grants," to be handed out at the whim of the Secretary of Transportation. And it gets worse. Another $290 million is committed to debt service. So the actual amount of guaranteed money for the system is around $210 million. Last year's budget was $1.3 billion. Check out a memo from Friends of the Earth on the subject
Amtrak's enemies rail against subsidizing a system that doesn't make a profit. It's curious: Every form of transportation in this country -- especially cars -- is heavily subsidized, but that's evil only when it comes to trains.
Why am I not surprised that the Bush administration hates Amtrak? This gang has only one priority, and that’s to funnel as much of America’s wealth into the pockets of their friends as quickly as possible. Train travel uses the least amount of oil per passenger mile of the alternatives, so of course it has to go!
They have no shame. Anything that government does that actually helps the ordinary working person gets gutted, crony-fied, or turned into a way to help their corporate clients. Take FEMA, or the Medicare drug ‘benefit’. Please.
There’s plenty of money for cost-plus contracts for Halliburton, as well as tax cuts for the top 1%, but Dick Cheney doesn’t ride Amtrak. In a few years, the deficit they are creating today will result in soaring inflation and interest rates. And when the Chinese get tired of buying our treasury securities, we’ll see the dollar fall to a fraction of its value overnight. You working people with retirement in the bank or a 401K…tough luck. They even had the chutzpah to go after Social Security, but the American people aren’t that dumb…yet.
But they’re keeping us safe, right? Really? Where’s Bin Laden? It’s only been 4-1/2 years. Why are we stuck in Iraq long after deposing Saddam? Has anything been done about port security? How much airline baggage is being scanned for explosives? Do we have control of our borders? The truth is that they don’t care about security either – all they care about is emptying our wallets.
Wake up America – throw the bums out before it’s too late!