Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
It does not matter whether the government has unfairly subsidized air travel, rail travel, water travel, cruise ships, Amtrak, skate boards, etc. or whether it is unfairly subsidizing them.  The key question is how much money should be invested in passenger rail?  And where does it make sense to make the investments?  What problem will passenger rail solve and what is the best solution?    <o:p></o:p> Obviously, since it is not a viable commercial enterprise, the only realistic source of funding for passenger rail is the taxpayer.  And therein lies a major problem.  The federal government is deep in debt.  It is now more than 93 per cent of GDP.  Moreover, many states, including <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>, are also deep in debt.  And for many of them it is likely to get worse because of their unfunded public pensions.  Recent reports show that the unfunded pension obligations for the states is north of $1 trillion.  So where does the money come from?<o:p></o:p> Government debt is not a political issue.  How to deal with it will be a political issue, undoubtedly, but the red ink does not look like a donkey or elephant.  It is a legitimate issue when discussing the viability of high speed rail, commuter rail, Amtrak, etc.  To think otherwise is to ignore a compelling constraint.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag