Mitt Romney vows to Eliminate Amtrak

[tufsu1]

Survival is what large governmental institutions do best. Amtrak would do well to focus on the routes that make money and abandon, or give back to the states those that do not. After all, the best thing going for Amtrak is the fact that the USPS is more screwed up than Amtrak.

they've tried that...almost every time Amtrak threatens to shut down service to a given small town, they get flak from that area's congressman....just like the USPS

btw...airlines are barely profitable and they have all those federally-mandated departure/landing taxes....which funds things including Taj Mahal-like airport terminals....imagine if the same taxes could be placed on train travel!

[mtraininjax]

btw...airlines are barely profitable and they have all those federally-mandated departure/landing taxes....which funds things including Taj Mahal-like airport terminals....imagine if the same taxes could be placed on train travel!

Based on the bailouts of GM and Chrysler and the bankruptcies of American Airlines, and the post 9/11 hangover, I don't think there is 1 commercial or public transportation company you can point to in this global economy as being successful. Ford did not take bailout money, but they are not exactly thriving either.

What do they all have in common? High Labor Union infestation.

[tufsu1]

What do they all have in common? High Labor Union infestation.

those damn American workers.....if only we could ship the jobs overseas...oh wait, never mind

[mtraininjax]

those damn American workers

Nice!

[If_I_Loved_you]

btw...airlines are barely profitable and they have all those federally-mandated departure/landing taxes....which funds things including Taj Mahal-like airport terminals....imagine if the same taxes could be placed on train travel!

Based on the bailouts of GM and Chrysler and the bankruptcies of American Airlines, and the post 9/11 hangover, I don't think there is 1 commercial or public transportation company you can point to in this global economy as being successful. Ford did not take bailout money, but they are not exactly thriving either.

What do they all have in common? High Labor Union infestation.

So if we get rid of all Labor Unions the "ceo" of America are going to pay a fare salary to the working class. And everything is going to be so much better because it's the unions that have screwed up America? Give me a break!

[Lunican]

Good idea Mtrain. We can just hire guys off the street for $2 an hour to become Amtrak engineers (and pilots too!). What could possibly go wrong?

[JeffreyS]

Amtrak would do better running an ad campaign messaging that they are not as "subsidized" as roads or air. They need to tell everyone they are one of the only government services that contribute to their own costs. Amtrak the most sustainable government service.

[Captain Zissou]

This reminds me of when the school board tried to cut high school Cross Country in order to balance their budget.  I think the total cost county wide was $10,000 or something tiny.  First Place Sports saved it by have a sale for a few days and donating to the city.  Amtrak would be one of the worst things to cut, in my opinion.  There are billions of dollars spent on inefficiencies and duplicated services in Washington.  Cut those.

[PeeJayEss]

btw...airlines are barely profitable and they have all those federally-mandated departure/landing taxes....which funds things including Taj Mahal-like airport terminals....imagine if the same taxes could be placed on train travel!

Based on the bailouts of GM and Chrysler and the bankruptcies of American Airlines, and the post 9/11 hangover, I don't think there is 1 commercial or public transportation company you can point to in this global economy as being successful. Ford did not take bailout money, but they are not exactly thriving either.

What do they all have in common? High Labor Union infestation.

It takes a specially zealous level of cognitive dissonance to blame the country's problems on organized labor while the gap between rich and poor grows exponentially and the middle class continues to diminish.

Let's get rid of Amtrak and arts/science funding so that we can continue to subsidize oil (which we know is unsustainable and counter-productive to energy progress), corn (which is at the core of our rising healthcare costs), and roads . I don't actually think Romney believes this (though Ryan does), but his pandering to the extremists of his party, much like John McCain four years ago, is pathetic (though necessary to get elected as a Republican today). How about we get rid of the subsidies that both waste money and are counter to progress before we eliminate the subsidies that waste money to support it.

[Jaxson]

It is laughable that we are expecting Amtrak to have a return on investment that we do not require from highways or airlines.  It is even more laughable that, with the major airlines tacking on more surcharges and fees, we are even debating the closure of a major alternate mode of transportation.  I agree with Ock that we have thrown Amtrak into an unnecessary death spiral by cutting back services and making their facilities less profitable.  Let's just keep cramming people into airports and onto the highways because politicians fail to see the value of passenger rail.

[urbanlibertarian]

I dunno. It seems to me EVERY politician has been trying to get rid of Amtrak since before 1971.  Gotta hand it to Amtrak, somehow they survive.

As for Carter, he was a p!$$ poor excuse for a president and a disgrace to the white house. Amtrak aside, under Carter we enjoyed stagflation, a second energy crisis, and a little dip sh!t 3rd world country (at the time) pushing us around.

How did ol' Jimmy respond? Enacted a grain embargo against the Soviet Union, and boycotted the 1980 Olympics. Im sure that made our 52 hostages, held by those sand fleas for 444 days, feel really good.

I hate to defend Jimmy Carter, but his grain embargo and Olympic boycott were in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. His response to the Iraq hostage crisis was initially to launch a rescue attempt, which failed. That wasn't his fault (I'd assume it was a fault of the military guys who planned it poorly).

As far as stagflation and the energy crisis - I doubt he was to blame for that.

I think he does share the blame, somewhat, for Osama bin Laden and the current situation in Afghanistan. Perhaps.

Carter also, with the help of Ted Kennedy deregulated the airlines and interstate trucking.  Both very good things IMO.

[Lunican]

Well, I guess we should talk about railroads since this is a thread about Amtrak.

Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX, and BNSF are all very profitable and have unionized labor.

[BackinJax05]

It seems to me EVERY politician has been trying to get rid of Amtrak since before 1971.  Gotta hand it to Amtrak, somehow they survive.

Survival is what large governmental institutions do best. Amtrak would do well to focus on the routes that make money and abandon, or give back to the states those that do not. After all, the best thing going for Amtrak is the fact that the USPS is more screwed up than Amtrak.

But liking trains or not, the country cannot afford to keep pouring money down a losing black hole. I'd rather save the PBS and Arts funding over the billions given to subsidize Amtrak. The PBS funding and Arts have more to do with directly helping and educating people, which is something we need in our country, more than we need a railroad.

I respectfully disagree. PBS has some good shows. As for the arts, they should be self sustaining.

[darctones]

According to http://www.usaspending.gov/, the government spends

0.008% on Amtrak
0.001% on PBS
0.023% on National Endowment for the Arts
0.024% on National Endowment for the Humanties

So the plan to balance the budget is to eliminate 0.056% of the expenditures?!

[BackinJax05]

I know Im gonna get clobbered for this, but lets face it: arts & humanities are BORING!!

Education is never a boring topic. I understand the sarcasm,  but we need more education, as evidenced this week! 

You say education isnt boring? Obviously you havent been to school

Seriously, I know what you mean. If congress would stop voting themselves pay raises (at OUR expense), they could easily subsidise Amtrak AND the arts with no problems. Well, one problem: That idea makes sense, and making sense doesnt go over very well in Washington.