No Dedication To Transit

I've constantly asked myself what could possibly make normal Americans hate mass transit. Oh, I know why abnormal Americans - that is, Tea Party Republicans - hate it. They complain that it has to be subsidized (like the highways, like aviation) that it's an inefficient boondoggle (despite the fact that mass transit moves more people than highways for less money), and that it's an attack on the freedom to go where and when you want (never mind that commuting to your job isn't a trip you necessarily want to take) - I get all that. But why would sane Americans oppose it?

It turns out that normal people don't hate mass transit, really. Because a large number of them wrote to the House Ways and Means Committee to protest a proposed plan to end dedicated funding for mass transit and leave such funding to the whims of politicians during annual appropriation disputes. How many? How about five thousand individuals and six hundred groups representing thousands more? In a country as complacent as ours, that's actually pretty impressive!

But not good enough for the GOP-dominated House Ways and Means Committee, which voted mostly along party lines - 20-17 - to kill dedicated transit funding. (Two Republicans sided with the Democrats.) Apparently they had no interest in siding with un-American, pinko subversive groups who support dedicated transit funding that allows people to get around without cars - groups like the Club for Growth, whose alumni include noted lefties Stephen Moore and Pat Toomey, along with those defenders of European-style socialism, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The proposal wouldn't save any money; it would just redirect the 2.86 cents out of the total 18.4-cent motor fuel tax currently put into Highway Trust Fund's transit account and pour it into more spending on highways. The committee essentially told Americans who rely on trains, buses and light rail to get around that they don't matter. They zealously want to cut money on public programs like transit and promote a new American order in honor of Ronald Reagan's legacy.

Except for one thing: The idea to have a dedicated transit funding component in the Highway Trust Fund came from President Ronald Reagan himself. Even though Reagan was famous for saying foolish things about mass transit - like, when he said that no one used it - he probably did more for transit than many Democratic leaders have.

The bill will be sent to the whole House, where it will likely be voted on and sent to the Senate, so here are plenty of opportunities to reverse this hideous decision. But I'm not holding my breath.