WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful House committee is weighing legislation that would slash funds for Amtrak by 18 percent just hours after a deadly train crash in Philadelphia.
The measure includes $1.1 billion for the passenger railroad next year. That’s a $251 million cut from current levels. President Barack Obama requested almost $2.5 billion, much more than his previous proposals
The Appropriations Committee began work on Wednesday on an overall spending bill for transportation and housingthat totals $55 billion.
In recent years, cuts by House Republicans have been restored in House-Senate negotiations, but the railroad’s budget has remained flat.
New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey said the measure shortchanges important accounts, including those dedicated to transportation safety.
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No worries! President Trump will fix the problem! He’ll sell off the assets for pennies on the dollar to himself and his crony friends, shore up the most lucrative routes and charge a bundle to use them, and sell the rest for scrap.
No kidding, that’s probably not far off from the GOP vision for Amtrak. Northeasterners use it far more than anyone else, so it’s ripe for decimation and ultimately complete privatization if they can swing it. Amtrak’s a perfect illustration of the late, much-maligned earmarks: that trading process was always what saved it from starvation before. Of course, a sane government would be bolstering rail transportation nationwide, with faster trains that might induce more people to drive and fly less (oh, the fuel savings! Oh, the joy of arriving in the city center rather than an airport a long, expensive ride away!). But a sane government is something the modern GOP is pretty much designed to prevent.
No one is paying any goddamned attention to how utterly, if predictably, insane the budget the House Republicans are pushing out is. It’s like the Villagers are too busy tittering over Obama calling Warren “Elizabeth.”