Political Column by FC resident Larry Wiwi
Ever notice how Democrats are always pushing for passenger trains? Obama made multiple efforts to get trains built and there are two of his shining examples we can talk about – the streetcar in Cincinnati and the high-speed rail being built (sort of) in California. Any fifth grade math student could see the streetcar was going to be a financial failure even without COVID but Obama and his buddy then Cincinnati Mayor Mallory built it anyway and unlike the Field of Dreams movie we built it and they did not come and the taxpayers continue to bleed.
Similarly, the high-speed rail project in California is of questionable need but unquestionably way behind schedule and way over budget thanks to the usual Federal and California state bureaucrats and their environmental warrior friends.
This week commander-in-thief Biden continued this sorry Democrat tradition as he celebrated the 50th birthday of Amtrak which is absolutely fitting in many ways. First, Amtrak is a colossal failure and a 50 year icon of high cost, limited service and taxpayer bleeding. In other words, Amtrak fails to deliver on its mission / promises just like Biden has largely failed in his nearly 50 years in public office.
The lesson of Amtrak is very simple: If the service cannot financially support itself in the private sector, it probably deserves to die because there is not enough demand for the service. This is not to say that mass transit should never have any taxpayer subsidy, but it should be very limited and considered very carefully. For example, mass transit systems that serve the local areas of large cities like the NY subway or the Metro that serves the Washington DC area likely do receive some taxpayer subsidy, however they also take thousands of vehicles off the road in those cities every day negating the need to build and maintain much larger highway and feeder road systems so are likely taxpayer neutral or perhaps even a benefit – not so for Amtrak.
The real reason Democrats always push for trains is they want citizens to live in concentrated areas and to be dependent on public transportation, that way they are a lot easier to control. They will tell you they want to build trains to save the environment, but that is a façade, it is really all about control as it always is for the Democrats since they prefer subjects to citizens.
Larry Wiwi
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