Derailed AGAIN!

I knew it was too good to last.

Do you remember those rail projects I talked about on Wednesday? Well, it seems that now you can forget them. House Republicans are not only interested in killing the $53 billion, six-year plan from the Obama administration to bring bullet trains to Amtrak, they're proposing to slash funding for the existing national passenger railroad. That means the proposed tunnel between New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River is also in jeopardy. U.S. Representative Hal Rogers (R-KY), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, insists that the ridership on Amtrak is too small to justify more subsidies at taxpayers' expense. (The media report that the Republicans are prepared to "fight" President Obama's Amtrak plans.) In New Jersey, where a new tunnel under the Hudson River is desperately needed, not only is Governor Christie not showing any interest in standing up to Rogers, but Republican U.S. Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and whose district (in which I live) includes commuter rail service to New York City, has been mum on the issue too.

I wish more Republicans would come clean and admit that they don't want to support any transportation project that cuts into the profits of car sales. That's why they supported President Obama's call to spend more money on highways. Oops! Correction: John Boehner called that wasteful government spending. Still, it makes sense that the Republicans would support a profit-oriented transportation network, given their enthusiastic support for the GM and Chrysler loans. Oh, wait a minute - they didn't support those either!

So what is the Republican idea for a transportation system that moves more people and creates more jobs? Apparently, it involves people selling Japanese and Korean cars made by workers in foreign-owned factories located in right-to-work states - preferably SUVs rugged enough to handle decrepit highways and go over grade crossings of abandoned railroad tracks.

Oh yeah, there are many more budget cut proposals aimed at the sort of amenities that make a country worth living in. I'll get to that later.