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The President is still talking about high(er) speed rail..... something that I find surprising given the outcome of the November elections.
Is there anything to be encouraged by here or is this perhaps a smokescreen to occupy the naysayers while the administration works on other things relatively unnoticed?
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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It's the "vision" thing, David. Anyway, what do election results have to do with improving the nation's transportation and infrastructure systems?
The thing about vision is that a lot of people are myopic. The horizon, say 50 years out, is difficult to bring into focus, but someone's got to try.
Question, of course, is whether the public or private sector should take the lead, and therein lies the rub.
Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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It can be a difficult thing, as well. By making Improved Passenger Rail service a hallmark of the Obama Administration, or a legacy of the Obama Administration, makes it something of a target for those who wish to oppose everything Obama. We must get to our elected officials, State, local, and Federal, and make our views on such a program known. Many who have recently been elected into office already believe what the Reason Foundation, CATO Institute, et al., have said regarding Rail. The long knives are out in force. We will have to play defense for a couple of legislative sessions, in order to position our efforts when something better comes along.
-------------------- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the Earth all one's life." Posts: 506 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Mar 2002
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Obama promoting rail gives me the same warm feeling as using "Global Warming" as the justification for reduction in petroleum and other energy usage.
They have politicized something that should happen regardless of political persuasion.
(I am a global warming skeptic. I feet it is a cyclical thing similar to the uproar about global cooling 30 to 40 years ago. This too shall pass and those that hung their hats on it will lose credibility, including that concerning what should be done with or without the phenomena that has them in an uproar.)
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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If Congress takes away $58 billion from HUD, EPA, FCC, DOE, EEOC or some other non-essential agency, then OK.
My solution to the unbelievably huge Federal deficit is to adopt the 2007 Federal budget, but that is way too realistic for the people infesting Washington DC
Posts: 1418 | From: Houston, Republic of Texas | Registered: Jan 2001
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