OBAMA'S TOY RAILROAD

OBAMAS TOY RAILROAD

Well my concern today goes to the OBAMA. PELOSI and RIED push for a light rail connection between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Why not begin with a quick look at AMTRAK. AMTRAK was the Federalization of the Railroads on May 1, 1971 and during the past 38 years has never turned a profit and has depended on government subsidies every single year starting in 1971 with a measly 40 Million dollars in cash and another 100 Million dollars in loans to get the farce rolling. Today the federal budget calls for AMTRAK subsidies of 2.8 Billion dollars per year through 2013 or a total of $13 Billion dollars. This is still chicken feed compared to what OBAMA. PELOSI, and RIED are proposing for California and Nevada. The initial expenditure is off the charts and on top of that the Feds will be creating a requirement for a huge perpetual subsidy which will make the 2.8 billion that we are now spending on AMTRAK look like pin money.

Oh by the way this also sets up another government owned and subsidized enterprise directly competing with presently profitable free market air line companies that already service the Los Angeles to Los Vegas route.

The Los Angeles to Las Vegas route is only the tip of the iceberg, Obama has plans for light rail that includes cities across America. The proposed down payment is 8 Billion with another Billion per year over the next 5 years and of course has any government run project ever, ever, ever, come under budget? Obama has professed that government investments in our yields great dividends. What, pray tell, are these dividends?

There was no upside to the original nationalization of the railroads and there is no upside to this!