Republican Congress Just Cut $300 Million From Amtrak

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May 13, 2015 3:30 pm - NewsBehavingBadly.com

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As I pointed out several times, Republicans have been hacking away at Amtrak funding for decades — because they would rather privatize the lines, and we know how well that always works out. But this time, they have incredibly bad timing and you need to let your Congress critters know what you think: As investigators still…


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D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

38 responses to Republican Congress Just Cut $300 Million From Amtrak

  1. Gadea May 13th, 2015 at 3:43 pm

    Money is never the answer if it is about you.
    Money is always the answer if it is about the GOP.

    • Hirightnow May 13th, 2015 at 3:52 pm

      Well stated.

    • Tim Coolio May 13th, 2015 at 11:04 pm

      GOP = profits over people
      GOP = when public schools all close their doors
      forever, and all roads revert to gravel or dirt,
      all the city buses and lite rail lines stop running,
      and all non-billionaires starve to death or die from
      lack of healthcare, then the republicans will pat
      themselves on the back and say – now we’re getting
      somewhere.

      • John Tarter May 15th, 2015 at 5:52 am

        The failing public schools need to be closed. Kids in high school that can’t read past the 5th grade level. Where does the money spent now go? To the teachers unions that’s where.

  2. Suzanne McFly May 13th, 2015 at 4:49 pm

    I read that we only have about 1.7 billion allocated for our rails for this year and China has almost 30 billion set aside for their railways. We need a New Deal and start catching back up before it is too late.

    • eyelashviper May 14th, 2015 at 9:39 am

      You are right, a New Deal has been needed for awhile, but there is no chance, with the Koch Brothers and their ilk pulling the strings in government.
      Even the most progressive and sensible politicician today gets pounded into dust when they actually try to bring our country up to date in all services, from infrastructure to education and alternative energy strategies…it’s just bait for the neocons to scream about socialism, statism, government overreach, and their minions buy it, even though they personally suffer from such polices.

      • Suzanne McFly May 14th, 2015 at 5:28 pm

        Lucky for those neo-cons, they will be dead when America becomes a country who has fallen too far behind because important investments weren’t made in previous generations.

  3. Kick Frenzy May 13th, 2015 at 5:36 pm

    I read elsewhere that President Obama had asked for $2.5 Billion.
    So, not only are they cutting $300 Million from the budget, but they’re giving a finger to the president, the extra $1 Billion, AND the American public.

    Thanks Republicans, we hate you too.

    • Kick Frenzy May 13th, 2015 at 6:01 pm

      Oh yeah!
      I know where I read it… on the front page of the Asbury Park Press (a NJ paper).
      Same place I read the headline about Chris Christie planning on slashing taxes (top tier from 40% to 28%) in NJ.

      (Kinda weird I haven’t see that reported anywhere online yet.)

  4. StoneyCurtisll May 13th, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    As much as some wold like to blame Obama…
    Or others Blame republicans for cutting funding Amtrack…
    When a train exceeds the capacity of a curve on the track by twice its recommended speed limit…
    I’m going to wait for the NTSB findings…

    • greenfloyd May 14th, 2015 at 12:01 am

      From what I’ve heard so far it sounds like we might have a runaway train. Maybe something like a stuck accelerator caused by any number of possibilities that, presumably, the engineer was unable to correct before he hit a 50mph curve at over 100mph. Physics took it from there.

      CBS reported the passenger cars were made in the 1970s, the engine was electric, but I don’t know how old it was or what kind of electronics it carries. They indicated most injuries were from unsecured luggage. One of the cars was so badly mangled I don’t see how anyone got out of it alive.

      • StoneyCurtisll May 14th, 2015 at 12:11 am

        Oh I agree…
        It could be any number of things, more than likely a combination of them..
        The NTSB will sort it out..

        • John Tarter May 15th, 2015 at 5:50 am

          And the number one thing? Most likely the train engineer was going too darn fast.

          • Obewon May 15th, 2015 at 9:21 am

            GOP Deleted $300 M funding for Amtrak’s “Positive Train control.” Automatically slowing trains in case of train engineer error, and that was already completed within miles of this PA to NY Amtrak route. Cheapskate GOP are well proven economically illiterate killers!

  5. Gadea May 13th, 2015 at 6:53 pm

    Koch Brothers, and their current puppet Scott Walker Wet Dream.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgiW6EzKWDA

    • eyelashviper May 14th, 2015 at 9:35 am

      Thanks for this link, will watch the entire video.

      • Gadea May 14th, 2015 at 5:48 pm

        You’re welcome.

  6. Obewon May 13th, 2015 at 9:12 pm

    This is just like when Repubs hypocritically cut $2 B+ from Embassy Security before and after Ben Ghazi

  7. rg9rts May 14th, 2015 at 12:34 am

    Leave it to the gopee to make timely and well informed cuts to the Amtrac budget.

  8. William May 14th, 2015 at 9:38 am

    The airline industry operates courtesy of government maintained airways, runways, air traffic control, navigation and weather service. The trucking Industry operates on a government built and maintained interstate system. Railroads for the most part operate on privately owned and taxed real estate.
    Now remember. These are the people who spent millions trying to repeal the ACA what 57 times? (I lost count), and still to this day spend millions on hearings (Benghazi), that their own committees chaired by their own party have determined to be just plain BS.

    • eyelashviper May 14th, 2015 at 9:41 am

      Our nation has become a truly dysfunctional state, and we are all suffering, only the plutocrats are content…..until the pitchforks come out.

    • John Tarter May 15th, 2015 at 5:48 am

      But we can spend millions on studying the mating habits of any and stuff like that, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Amtrack, like the US Mail is another losing proposition for the taxpayers.

      • OldLefty May 15th, 2015 at 6:26 am

        No it’s is not, unless Republican make it so.
        First they claim to hate government, then they clamor to get into government, then they ruin government, then the say, “See”??

        And the Post Office is and has always been the best bang for the buck, while Amtrak can be defunded because it services mostly urban people.

        Lack of good public transportation is also a reason for tourists to avoid many regions in the US.

      • William May 15th, 2015 at 9:33 am

        DO try to stick with the subject Dummy.
        Transportation, not mating habits.
        Now get your truck off of those government furnished roads, you filthy socialist.
        As you are so apt to point out. It’s another one of those “things” that isn’t mentioned in the Constitution.
        No mention whatsoever of department of transportation or the interstate highway system.
        If the company you worked for operated like the railroads, it would be forced to buy land and build their own roads.
        Thanks for dropping in and embarrassing yourself.
        Your right wing information compass Limbaugh went on a rant yesterday about railroads, which would be glistening examples of on time, high speed technology IF they were all privately owned. No surprise that a college dropout didn’t know railroads were put out of business partially due to subsidized interstate systems.
        BTW…
        There used to be a second guy in that locomotive when railroads had stronger unions.

      • William May 15th, 2015 at 10:58 am

        …like the US Mail is another losing proposition for the taxpayers.

        The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters

        Try reading something once in a while
        Ignorance isn’t patriotic.

      • fahvel May 15th, 2015 at 11:40 am

        considering some peoples minds, maybe there should have been a study of the mating habits of people with bad teeth.

  9. Maxx44 May 14th, 2015 at 11:47 am

    There’s a marked difference between being fiscally responsible and endangering people’s lives in order to pander to your base and your owners, i.e., the Koch boys.

  10. Foundryman May 14th, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    President Obama and the Dem leadership need to stand up and lead on this. They need to call for a massive infrastructure spending plan to bring our country into the 21 century. Roads, bridges, railways, electric power grids, air, climate and water..Everything needs modernized and replaced. Republican tax cuts, spending cuts and austerity is breaking us, tearing the country down, destroying what once was the greatest country in the world. People need to get mad as hell about it.

    • Maxx44 May 14th, 2015 at 3:34 pm

      Too bad we can’t resurrect the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Recovery Act, and similar depression era initiatives that both put people to work and built and repaired our infrastructure.

      • John Tarter May 15th, 2015 at 5:53 am

        How about the internment camps, do you want those back too?

        • OldLefty May 15th, 2015 at 6:22 am

          Why?
          They were wrong.
          The things that Maxx44 references helped to build the American middle class.

        • fahvel May 15th, 2015 at 11:38 am

          for people with tooth decay? go for it!

  11. ValianThor May 14th, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    Cutting .270 mil from Amtrak’s usual largesse of subsidy and profits is a pittance.
    Let’s move on, and fast track that bullet train!

    • Larry Schmitt May 15th, 2015 at 11:34 am

      The bullet train would not be able to operate on the current tracks. They have gone so long without being upgraded, that the only high speed train in this country, the Acela (hardly worthy of the name, compared to the rest of the world), has to reduce speeds on curves because the tracks can’t handle the high speeds. Many billions of dollars of maintenance would be required before they try to run a true high speed train.

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