Celebrate What is Good

Since this is friday and in an effort to find that which is good and noble in public service today, let me praise Sen. Tom Coburn, a Nebraska republican who is making Harry Reid miserable. Yesterday, Sen. Coburn single-handedly stopped a bundle of pork Reid was pushing. It included $1.5 billion to subsidize the D.C. Metro, $12 million for a botanical park in Maryland, and $17 million to block the importation or exportation of monkeys.

The New York Times said that... a "narrow majority was unable to free them (the spending proposals) from the legislative grip of Senator Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who takes pride in being stubborn". Is that what you call it? Stubborn? I thought he was a selfless watchdog for the public's dollar myself. Coburn is so widely despised in the Senate that he is facing censure for delivering a handful of babies. The pittance he receives for delivering the babies is considered outside income. Coburn says he likes to deliver babies because it reminds him that folks are living and dying way beyond Washington, D.C. and it helps him keep his perspective.

He's a hero.

We need more Tom Colburn's willing to serve.

well I dont know the details of the DC metro but is it safe to say that is public transit?

I thought we wanted to expand public transit.

I personally would like to see amtrak expanded.

Also bus service.

We have lots of people here who commute to Chas every day and people in Charleston commute here.

Fifty mi each way.

Should it be free?

That's fine and dandy Sherm and I agree. But it shouldn't be done on the taxpayers tab. If that service is warranted and there is a market for it, it will pay for itself. The government needs to stay out.

And didn't I read somewhere that part of what has led to our consumption of so much energy is the distance in which Americans travel to work each day. We're the only country in the world that does that.

I dont know if it should be "free" or not.

Maybe to start with to get the interest up.

Why should my tax money or Jimmy's tax money or anyone else's tax money be used to get someone to work in Charleston from Ripley?

If one can't afford to work in Charleston and live in Ripley then they either need to work in Ripley or move to Charleston.

Tom Coburn, the subject of this thread, wouldn't do it. Neither would I.

shermangeneral wrote:I dont know if it should be "free" or not.

Maybe to start with to get the interest up.

How much money have the taxpayers already "invested" in Amtrack?

I honestly don't know and am no longer looking up stats until DSL is here.

They dug a trench across my front lawn and laid the piping for the wiring earlier this week. I think they plan on getting it finished sometime before the decade is out.

What's the rush? The New Milennium will be here before you know it!

Geeze, can someone tell me why Amtrak's still in business?

The truth is that Amtrak is not so much of a transportation company as a welfare agency. In its over 34 years of operation, its has not once posted a profit, consuming a total of over $29 billion in taxpayer money in the process. During this time, it has enjoyed the rabid support of Republicans and Democrats alike.

The Northeast Corridor route through the densest areas of the populous Eastern Seaboard is about the only profitable line in the system, yet Amtrak continues to operate numerous cross-country routes at huge losses. The Sunset Limited, for example, which runs between Los Angeles and Orlando, continues to operate even though it lost $466 per passenger in 2004. (When you are losing more per passenger than the cost of a cross-country airplane ticket, you know you are in bad shape. Amtrak would be better off just buying these passengers plane tickets.) Despite the obvious lack of consumer demand to justify its existence, it persists because it runs through influential politicians' districts.

source

On Sunday, there was a supervisor sitting in his truck watching 3 guys pick up stones and throwing them a few at a time into a big hole. In addition to them, there were men on either side of the monstrous vehicles they had with them watching for traffic. They had the road completely blocked.

On Sunday........

On Tuesday they dug the ditch and layed that piping part of the way. They didn't finish.

On Wednesday night at around 11:00 pm they came to collect the enormous ditchwitch they left in MY YARD. I thought they were lost until I saw them poking around the ditchwitch. They told me they had to bring it somewhere else to finish another section and they'd be back in the morning.

Care to know why your Verizon service is so expensive? Out here in the country there's almost NOBODY to see they aren't doing jack.

I knew they never posted a profit. Thanks for posting the info, Aaron.

The truth is that Amtrak is not so much of a transportation company as a welfare agency. In its over 34 years of operation, its has not once posted a profit, consuming a total of over $29 billion in taxpayer money in the process.

How many public or quasipublic enterprises "post a profit"? The whole idea of such entities is to assure a public service continues- with or without a profit to districute to shareholders.

We can think what we will about the government funding particular services- about the public justification for doing so.

But to judge the success or failure of a government supported enterprise by whether is "posts a profit" is to disregard the usefullness of the service to the general public.

Well then think of it this way: Amtrak's service is so singular the passengers are staying away in droves.

You'll have to remind me that article and section of our constitution that allows govenment funding of mass transportation.

I don't have a problem with providing public assistance to keep routes open that people use for transportation to and from work. They are heavily utilized and I can agree they benefit the public welfare etc.

The problem I have with Amtrack is they continue to throw good money after bad on these cross country routes. I don't think the taxpayers should shoulder that burden. Close LA to Orlando for crying out loud. Why should Jimmy and Aaron and I subsidize the travel plans of the miniscule number of people traveling the rails for vacation?

Geezus. Yet another example of the taxpayers being burned to benefit a few.

Well then think of it this way: Amtrak's service is so singular the passengers are staying away in droves.

That is a fair observation. And we have to ask "why?".

But then we realize that the government also subsidizes oil-based fuels for competing single passenger vehicle transportation, subsidizes highways at many times the amount it does Amtrak- encouraging people to use single passenger cars in lieu of public transportation like Amtrak, subsidizes high cost per mile airline transportation companies that compete with Amtrak, etc.

What percentage of federal highway funding comes from revenue generated by the federal gas tax?

Those highways are used for transportation by commuters, but they're also used by guys like Sherm to transport goods. You aren't interested in making it more difficult for Sherm and his buddies to make a living are you?

You aren't interested in making it more difficult for Sherm and his buddies to make a living are you?

Transportation of goods by railroad costs far less per ton mile than by trucks and highways. Let Sherm and his buddies load and unload more railroad cars- and make more short hauls from RR terminals to distribution warehouses and stores, and fewer expensive "long hauls".

Who is going to pay for the upgrades and maintainence of the rail system you envision?

I honestly don't know the answer to the question:

What percentage of federal highway funding comes from revenue generated by the federal gas tax?

That is important when having a discussion about federal subsidies. The roads are terrific if the people using them are paying for them.

Stephanie wrote:What percentage of federal highway funding comes from revenue generated by the federal gas tax?

That is important when having a discussion about federal subsidies. The roads are terrific if the people using them are paying for them.

Roads and their zillions of single passenger vehicles are a very inefficient use of fuel resoorces. And public "roads and highways" are far more costly to both build and keep maintained for heavy trucks than are RR systems.

Did you know that the FHA is looking at building a new I-81, parellel to the existing one- to be designated just for truck traffic?

ziggy wrote:

Stephanie wrote:What percentage of federal highway funding comes from revenue generated by the federal gas tax?

That is important when having a discussion about federal subsidies. The roads are terrific if the people using them are paying for them.

Roads and their zillions of single passenger vehicles are a very inefficient use of fuel resoorces. And public "roads and highways" are far more costly to both build and keep maintained for heavy trucks than are RR systems.

Did you know that the FHA is looking at building a new I-81, parellel to the existing one- to be designated just for truck traffic?

Find a way to fund the rails, Ziggy. I'm not opposed to them, I just don't want to have my standard of living further eroded by another costly program. I've got one son in college we're helping financially and a daughter who'll be off to college and all the expenses associated with it in a year. I also have a young son who needs new shoes and we're tapped out over here.

Perhaps the new parallel road will actually be environmentally advantageous by decreasing congestion and idle time for those big rigs. The trucking companies and independent drivers are paying for the use and construction of those roads via the gas tax. Are you suggesting we tax them on diesel and then use the proceeds to build and maintain a rail system to put them all out of work?

Sherm may not care, he's beyond the age of having to worry about feeding kids and making mortgage payments. He has a pension and this is supplemental income for him. By the time it's all said and done he could just go be a WalMart greeter or bag groceries at Krogers if he really was strapped. The same can't be said about most other truckers. They'll be SOL.