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[quote user="Phoebe Vet"] To a federal government that throws money down the rat hole in quantities that you can't even comprehend, $8 billion to upgrade our passenger rail infrastructure is pocket change.  If Amtrak was eliminated completely, it would not even make a noticeable blip on a graph of the federal deficit and/or the national debt.  The war in Iraq alone, has a bigger number than that in the money that they don't even KNOW where it went.  What is a better investment; Amtrak, or 28 new custom made Italian helicopters for the President's use?  Amtrak or ONE new aircraft carrier?  Amtrak or a missile installation in Poland that is greatly angering Poland's neighbor Russia and so is ratcheting up the cold war that so many presidents worked so hard to defuse?  If we drop 9 zeros we can put it into perspective:  Debt will be $12,400 (in billions)  The Amtrak investment will be $8 (in billions). [/quote]   What the government spends the military, education, social programs, etc. has nothing to do with what it should spend on promoting or operating a commercial activity like passenger rail.  The question is whether the spend is a good investment.  Investing in a commercial activity (intercity passenger rail) that has a low probability of covering its operating costs, let alone its capital costs, is a poor business decision no matter what spin you put on it. The amount proposed for passenger rail projects is small compared to other federal and state government spends.  But one does not put out a fire by throwing just a little more gasoline on it. As far as I know Amtrak is the only commercial activity in the U.S. that is run by the federal government, irrespective of the fiction that it is a quasi private corporation.
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