Republicans Push Back on Mass Transit Socialism
By all definitions one of the oldest and the most pervasive forms of socialism in the United States is so called public transportation. Our taxes fund it and it allows people to ride downtown in style on the government dime instead of buying a car like a patriotic American. The auto industry sure wouldn’t need government help if every person you saw on a bus or subway was buying their own car. Think about it. We’re paying for public transportation and then we’re paying to save the auto industry from people not buying cars. We’re getting it on both ends.
The Republicans get it. Refusing to be pressured or bullied by the all-powerful bus driver union, Republican Senators have managed to drastically cut the amount of the stimulus to $10,000,000 and the House intends to go even lower. Meanwhile, we’re spending over three times that much on good old American roads. Instead of using our hard earned tax dollars to pay for freeloaders to ride the bus. The Democrats say we have to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but have you seen how cheap gas is now? I can’t see it going back up anytime soon.
This is a moment for Republicans to pat themselves on the back. Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee was in awe, “The reason for the reduction in overall funding — we took money out of Amtrak and out of aviation; we took money out of the Corps of Engineers, reduced the water infrastructure program, the drinking water and the wastewater treatment facilities and sewer lines, reduced that from $14 billion to roughly $9 billion — was the tax cut initiative that had to be paid for in some way by keeping the entire package in the range of $850 billion.”
Public transportation belongs to an older era. It is a lot like those statues of Stalin they used to have in the Soviet Union, but thankfully its time has passed. Transportation is far too important to be left to socialism.
“it allows people to ride downtown in style on the government dime instead of buying a car like a patriotic American”
think about all the infrastructure that you use everyday to drive your car, from streets to fuel, all that is supported by the public investment…
sti1es
January 27, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I pay for those things–that’s the way it should be.
thatsrightnate
January 27, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I will stipulate that mass transit unions have abused the system and the taxpayers who have funded it, and I would love to see their power reduced dramatically.
Having said that, I also suggest that transit is one of the FEW government-taxpayer-funded services which actually serve the public interest.
I ride transit daily to my low-wage job. I don’t own a car and don’t even have a license to drive. (Several years ago I was hospitalized for two months and my car – parked properly in my own driveway – received several tickets (because the tags were expired)…I didn’t know about the tickets until it was too late to contest them…the tickets ran up several hundred dollars in fines and my license was suspended. Now tell me the tickets are MY fault.)
So there’s no way I’m going to buy a car and drive across town to a minimum wage job.
Terry Pratt
November 15, 2009 at 3:08 pm
How about that highways and roads socialism?
A Shtern
September 15, 2010 at 9:30 am
Nah, it’s for automobiles
thatsrightnate
September 20, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Looks like your prediction re: oil prices was as far off as one could possibly get. Also, last time I checked public transportation wasn’t free, so the people who ride it aren’t freeloaders.
Do you have a workable plan for dismantling public transit in high-density urban centers like New York and Chicago? If so, I’d like to see it.
Reality
April 21, 2011 at 8:04 am