Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="wanswheel"] The national debt is 17.6 trillion, Amtrak gets 1.3 billion (this year), and a trillion = a thousand billion. Therefore Amtrak will have to suspend train service for 135 centuries. (At least Mel Brooks will be around.) <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=17.6+trillion+divided+by+1.3+billion&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS401US402&q=17.6+trillion+divided+by+1.3+billion&gs_l=hp....0.0.0.1883...........0.hjNhVFoyRzg">https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=17.6+trillion+divided+by+1.3+billion&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS401US402&q=17.6+trillion+divided+by+1.3+billion&gs_l=hp....0.0.0.1883...........0.hjNhVFoyRzg</a> [/quote] You are mixing apples and oranges. The cumulative debt of the United States Federal Government is $17.6 trillion. Amtrak's cumulative losses since its inception in 1971, as of the end of FY13, was $30.5 billion. It is embedded in the total federal debt. If Amtrak's cumulative debt were stated in constant current dollars, it would be considerably higher than $30.5 billion. As is the case for the total federal debt, one way or the other Amtrak's cumulative losses have fallen on the taxpayers.    In FY13, the latest year for verifiable numbers, as per Amtrak's Statement of Cash Flows, it received $1.5 billion from the federal government and $130 million from federal and state capital payments.  None of this, however, was the main point of my argument.  Supporters of Amtrak claim that the federal support for the company is chump change.  And indeed, in many respects, it is, although chump change tends to add up over the years. This is the same argument used by supporters of public television, public radio, subsidies for crop insurance, Tricare, etc.The list goes on and on.   As long as people argue that their beneficiary, i.e. Amtrak, EAS, etc., is sacred, the nation will never get its fiscal house in order.
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