Obama proposes national high-speed rail

You know who else was using trains a lot? Stalin, to move dissenters to the gulags. Wake up, America!

Actually the train, awful as it is here in Greece, is still by far my favorite mode of travel.

Shhh, you don't want to "wake" yt.

I'm a fan of this idea as well. If I could just drive down to Milwaukee, and then hop a train to Chicago, the Twin Cities, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Ohio, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and/or Louisville (the proposed Illinois hub), I would do it whenever I could just for the hell of it.

It's great. We tried this in FL of course and then figured we couldn't afford it.

Wasn't Orlando building it's own thing though? I know Tampa screwed it up and I thought we were going to be left out, but I'm happy with the FL list {Tampa, Orlando, Miami}.

He's just going to send it to Disneyworld! Rabble rabble!

Good on him. Let's see what people can find to bitch about now.

And oddly enough, it would still have to wait an hour for the Acela to pass.

But, great idea. I love, love, love traveling by train.

And you know who made them run on time. That's right, Hitler! Think about it!

Trillion dollar plus deficits for the next 10 years.... yep, thats what we need, to spend more money.

Or, here's a thought. Find a way to pay for it before building it. Like his campaign promise. I know, thats just asking too much... carry on.

it's not like he's found a way to pay for any of his other intiatives that he's already passed.... trillion dollar deficits.

BTW I never understood the bombing "brown" people thing. As if bombing non-brown people was more morally acceptable. Funny that a lot of Iraqis seem to be pretty fair skinned.

Anyways, if we're going to be spending money, this is the type of thing that I prefer. And it's permanent, so it's not a reactionary thing that will only have an effect during construction, but helps out in the short and long term.

Oh, you mean Bush.

And anyone who's been aboard a highspeed train knows how great it is. God I'd want one here...

Bush was able to successfully sell treasuries and bonds to pay for his debt, Obama is having to and will continue to print money for his debt not to mention it will be twice the amount of Bush's debt... 10+trillion dollars. This will double our current national debt... but hey, glad you want a fast train.

Bu-wha?

How's your Teabagging going?

Bush was successful at one thing: Fucking up your country from inside out and pushing it to Obama. He created the setting for the current crisis from grounds up by deregulating.

Investing in projects like this is intelligent. They also don't need oil.

Fuck Your Liberal Facts

Give me your forehead and I'll tell you.

Obama is fucking up twice as hard as bush ever dreamt of fucking up, the numbers don't lie. Obama is scaring off people who want to invest in America and buy American treasuries because of the amount of debt and the pace of which he is piling it on.

One word. Inflation.

Also, here is a graph to help you out in terms of deficits

Yeah, two months into Obama's term, speculation on his projected fiscal plan is much worse than Bush's actual fiscal disaster after the past 8 years. But hey, at least you have somewhere to channel all of your misplaced frustration and anger.

Actually, I speculated on his fiscal plan while he was running and said he'd have trillion dollar deficits and his aplogists cried foul and how he is responsible and he has pledged 'PAYGO" or whatever the fucked up term was for paying as you go in terms of budgets. Remember, the light pink line is HIS White House estimates. The darker one is the CBO projectins, it isn't some right wing think tank, thats the accountants for the country!

Alright, you don't seem to understand one thing: the economic crisis, WHICH IS BOUND TO MAKE THE DEBT WORSE, is Bush's baby. Do you understand this?

Please tell me those showed up at a "tea party".

Conservative hero Judd Gregg voted against PAYGO during the reckless spending party days of the Republican Congress/Bush era.

Also, re: high speed rail, I wish Congress would pass an additional spending bill that was all infrastructure. In fact, bring back the WPA!

It's about goddamn time, if you want rail in this country. Either privatize or go whole hog. None of this half-assed funding.

My larger point, which I only hinted at in my earlier post, is that talking strictly in terms of deficits and projected federal budgets is not all that helpful in a discussion about infrastructure. How do you calculate the downside to not renovating our communications and transportation channels for the next century? You don't see those numbers in the CBO's report. Where is Congress' projection for fuel and energy prices into the next decade? Wouldn't those numbers be more relevant?

The bottom line is that most of our infrastructure is old, tired and breaking down. And I'm not just talking about potholes and bridges. Everything from the way we use the internet to download information, to the way we ship goods or transmit energy across this country, is slowly dragging us back into a sub-1st world nation. I don't want to live in that country, and I don't think it makes economic sense for us to choose to live that way.

Exactly. But more than tourism, you could use it for business work related reasons too. One nice thing here is that I could still keep living where I'm at (say there's less job opportunities where I live) but work at another city, so it helps in many ways.

Amtrak's rail line needs to be revised to compete better. Right now if I want to go from Atlanta, GA to Dallas, TX. It's a 24 hour trip and almost double the price of flying.

If there was an express line, I would consider a train trip rather than air travel. It would be so much more relaxing considering train travel doesn't have the level of BS security you have to go through in comparison to air travel.

Well its not like spending money for infrastructure is entirely optional. Sometimes I am getting the impression a certain bunch of people expect to run a country like their household... just eat noodles+ketchup and drink water if you run out of money.
The bill for the bush years isnt wiped at the inauguration of Obama. Just as Bush had the chance to profit from the Clinton Administration. You inherit a lot from your predecessor, especially if he left you an economic collapse and two ongoing wars.
At least for the millions going into that train, you get something out of them. Its not just given to banks to disappear all 2008 style.

Surprise - Snaieke's still suckling Bushdick like it was a teat on the Fountain of Youth!

Not really much of a threat. The proposed system the president is working on is actually quite modest. Some would say too modest.

I don't have like...patience or stuff for long term planning for the country's infrastructure; this is America god dammit, if it doesn't give me a profit in the next quarter, then it can fuck right off.

I wonder how long that will last ...

Probably quite a while. You need to be on a plane to really do anything to it, so it makes sense to screen passengers. With thousands of miles of rails an enterprising saboteur could strike without being anywhere near the train.

Actually, it was everyone's favorite crazy Italian...


Roberto Benigni.

Fascists don't like mistakes like this, Ed. Not in the least. Try to be more fair and balanced in the future.

I love traveling by train. I hope with this stimulus money the California Corridor which has already been approved can be built quicker.

A big problem with passenger trains as they currently exist is that freight trains have priority which creates major delays.

I'm glad to see this discussion has steered away from party politics to the whole train thingy again. Because I can now add this invaluable insight:

This is a complete pile of bullshit. Where do you get your information from, political ads?

There has been hundreds upon HUNDREDS of billions spent upgrading our technological infrastructure over the last 10 years, especially due to Y2k as well as the ever growing demand for online activities. In 15 short years we've went from a 2800 baud modem to 50 Mb/s, sure Japan and South Korea (as examples) can go faster but there is a lot less country to lay wire for ground upgrades... also as to ensuring EVERYONE in the country can get internet, look up how they're developing ways for broadband and cable to be delivered through electrical lines \ outlets. That's the way of the future and the infrastructure is there and already being upgraded.

Most of our infrastructure is NOT old and it certainly isn't breaking down. Are there some flaws, certainly... with a country as large as our and bloated with bureaucracy there is a substantial risk of problems but as the old saying goes... the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Has our rail system fallen along the way side? Sure but its still one of the backbones of our transportation industry

As to paying for it, maybe he should have actually had a hand in the 1.2 trillion dollar stimulus package (the actual cost over 10 years, not the lower amount that was published for the 2 years) and allocated more money towards rail and transportation to adequately fund this project but much like all of his other projects, he just wants to spend billions to 'lay the groundwork' and not mention the total cost before committing to the project.

If there is a way to fund it, i'm on board (literally) 100%.. Thats all I care about. If a % of all sales goes towards repayment of the initial cost, cool. (Think like tolls)

Infrastructure is too broad of a word.

I think we're doing great when it comes to the internet (I'm fine with my fiber thank you), but transportation and energy need a lot of upgrading. Pretty much everybody agrees with that.

Roll back the Reagan tax cuts on millionaires and billionaires, close offshore tax haven loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, and close tax loopholes for Fortune 500 multinational corporations? The people/entities that attain this degree of wealth do so by the grace of the infrastructure that needs fixing and should pay their fair share to maintain it.

Such crticism will result in me going Gault. Don't push me now. Or rather, don't tread on me.

Yeah, I'd say the most logical corridor in the country for a high-speed rail is mysteriously absent. Fuck upstate New York*, that line should be swapped for one that goes from New England (either Boston/Worcester/Springfield/Hartford or Boston/Cape Cod/Providence/Hartford), through Bridgeport and New Haven, then New York City, down the Chemical Coast, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, etc, etc, just connect the whole East Coast down to Florida.


* There's no reason to head up that way unless it's headed to Niagara Falls or summat.

Good idea, but the New York corridor is no good. Who the fuck would ever want to go to Buffalo?