Bush Budget to Scrap Subsidy for Amtrak-Sources

[Noordam]

he Bush administration will for the first time propose eliminating operating subsidies for passenger train operator Amtrak as part of a push to cut budget deficits, people close to the budget process said on Tuesday. President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget, which he will send to Congress on Monday, will allocate no subsidy for Amtrak to run its trains. But it will offer $360 million for maintenance on the flagship Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston -- which Amtrak owns -- and for commuter services.

The proposal must be approved by Congress, and the administration faces a fight in getting approval for a budget that aims to nearly freeze the growth of domestic spending not tied to national defense.

An influential Democrat warned that if enacted, the Bush administration's budget would set the nation's only city-to-city passenger service "on a course to bankruptcy."

Last year, the Bush administration proposed $900 million in subsidies, but Congress increased that to $1.2 billion after the railroad said the administration's proposal would force it to shut down.

An Amtrak spokesman would not comment when asked about the possibility of the rail service losing the bulk of its federal allocation.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee on transportation and a strong Amtrak supporter, said she was deeply concerned about the budget move. "For four years they have played budget games and fought congressional efforts to keep Amtrak afloat," Murray said. "Now, despite the fact that Amtrak has gone to great lengths to get their costs under control and run more efficiently, the president is again offering a budget that sets the rail service on a course to bankruptcy," she added.

..more at

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/n.../bush_amtrak_dc

 

[jccollins]

I would not worry about it. Bush is an idiot and everyone knows it. In the end Congress will come through with just enough money for Amtrak to limp along another year. <_<

 

[saxman]

....Taking this country in exactly the wrong direction...but yet again the fight continues. Maybe we should think again how much money we are spending on someone elses freedoms, and not our own.

Chris

 

[Steve4031]

They ought to do something about the "operating subsidy" for "his" army over in Iraq protecting oil intersts.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Amtrak owens 97 miles of track in Michigan from Kalamazoo MI to Poter IN.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

And i don't put anything past BUSH he wants Amtrak gone real bad. :angry:

 

[AlanB]

And i don't put anything past BUSH he wants Amtrak gone real bad. :angry:

It's not Bush himself, it's the people who advise him.

 

[jccollins]

Bush must not read the paper. USA Today had Amtrak on the front page snapshot spotlight today as "All Aboard: Riding the rails around the nation" and showed Amtrak's annual passengers, in millions:

1974, 18.7

1984, 19.9

1994, 21.8

2004, 25.1

Increasing ridership, despite the service cuts and line eliminations, are evidence that Americans want and use passenger rail. The numbers don't lie.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

And i don't put anything past BUSH he wants Amtrak gone real bad. :angry:

It's not Bush himself, it's the people who advise him.

I thought i put his advisory staff in the post to whoops i forgot it.

 

[efin98]

Why am I not surprised people are jumping to conclusions with very little information out there based on a report from a news agency known for it's anti-Bush garbage...

If there was any push behind this it would have started in the only place where it could have ANY and I mean ANY effect on Amtrak- the US Senate!

Guys, it's all talk and no substance.

 

[rile42]

JC,

Aren't you assuming Bush can read........I always thought his advisors read everything to him.

I've been waiting for this shoe to fall ever since he took office. The wasted money in the war is certainly not going to help.

It's time everyone started getting in touch with their congressmen to make sure this doesn't happen.

 

[Noordam]

Why am I not surprised people are jumping to conclusions with very little information out there based on a report from a news agency known for it's anti-Bush garbage...
If there was any push behind this it would have started in the only place where it could have ANY and I mean ANY effect on Amtrak- the US Senate!

Guys, it's all talk and no substance.

80 Billion more for Iraq and zero for Amtrak sounds like Bush.

6.1 BILLION for his fleet of Presidential copters but non for Amtrack. Oh by the way those 23 copters will cost $250 Million each without cost overruns.

And who is going to build the copters?

July 02, 2003 # 2003-21

The Carlyle Group and Finmeccanica: Agreement for the Acquisition of FiatAvio’s Aerospace Business

Milan, 2nd July 2003 - The Carlyle Group and Finmeccanica have signed an agreement for the acquisition from Fiat Group of the aerospace businesses of FiatAvio SpA, the leading Italian manufacturer of aircraft and naval engines and a leader in space propulsion

Looks like Bush's father favorite company Carlyle Group has it fingers in the profits of the deal.

 

[Guest]

Already sent a note to my Senator Harry Reid,

Nice to be in Nevada where the Minority Leader resides.

The other Senator here is a Bush sock-puppet. And I am probably more Republican than Democrat on most things.

Let your congressman know! If they dont see reaction, they wont react.

 

[scott]

Y'all have it right! Economic facts are economic facts: HIGH spending (on senseless wars) and lowered taxes (for those of you making real good money) = a big OOPS. Now we don't have money for Amtrak.

The overwhelming number of Americans over here in the Middle East think Bush is a jerk (if they're feeling polite).

I hope Amtrak survives and will write the necessary folks in DC today.

 

[EmpireBuilderFan]

You know, I think I'm going to be in the minority with this one, but I hope he does push a budget through that doesn't provide any money to Amtrak. First of all, I'm pretty sure it won't fly since most of Congress is on Amtrak's side, more or less. More importantly, this might finally be time for a serious discussion within Congress about the role of passenger rail in this country. Am I holding my breath that this discussion will happen? No, but one can still hope. Besides, I'm getting really tired of this constant "Will Amtrak get enough money this year?". Either we need long distance passenger rail (which I strongly believe) or lets just pave over some more land and be done with it. :angry:

 

[Matthew Lanoue]

I heard that Paul Bremmer and the Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority lost $9 Billion. They just don't know where it is! Bush doesn't seem too worried about that, but he can't even spare $1.5 B or so just to keep Amtrak in existence. He better figure out what happenned to that money, and then he can use it to keep our trains running.

 

[WICT106]

The quickest thing I can write right now is to encourage everyone on this board to contact their Elected Representatives, and make your veiws and voices heard. Remember, in the U.S. it is Congress which has the power of the purse, not El Presidente Bush.

 

[Guest]

And i don't put anything past BUSH he wants Amtrak gone real bad. :angry:

Keep in mind that he wants to do this purely out of spite and to antagonize the members of this forum. He told me this personally.

 

[Guest]

And i don't put anything past BUSH he wants Amtrak gone real bad. :angry:

Keep in mind that he wants to do this purely out of spite and to antagonize the members of this forum. He told me this personally.

You know...you're exactly right. I just got off the phone with Bush's niece and she informs me that he is trying to create a domestic mess so the media can take their mind of the mockery he's made of the war in Iraq. In the end, it's all talk and no action. This joke of a budget is dead on arrival.

 

[SavetheCZ]

Another senior administration official added: "Amtrak should be treated like any other form of transportation and funded like any other form of transportation. The other forms don't get operating subsidies."

I wasn't going to post anything about this article but I just couldn't let this one go... what a$$ said this?

I know there are some conservatives that post here and I don't want to insult them but the guy they most likely voted for is a moron. Sure, we're willing to spend 220 billion (and counting) searching for WMD?, oops wait... capturing Sadam oops wait... liberating Iraq?oops wait... free elections? oops wait... insert new reason here). What is our return on investment for sending all that money to Iraq? Isn't Iraq just one big HUGE subsidy that the "Rs" are supposed to hate... unbeLIEvable.

We can "afford" to send billions to a 3rd world nation that didn't have the will to get off their collective butts and liberate themselves (or even assist us all that much) yet we cannot afford the "waste" of a national rail system. Did they forget that after the 9-11 attacks (which Iraq had nothing to do with) when air traffic was shut down Amtrak was one of the few ways people could move around the country?

Wouldn't it just be nice, and a much better indication of our status of being a world super-power than playing cowboy in other peoples back yards to be able to FULLY fund passenger rail and I'm not talking about the yearly stipend currently allocated that has to be fought for every year but true infrastructure repairs and in many cases equipment upgrades and FULLY fund a decent passeger rail system instead of the current system which in many ways is in worse shape than some rail systems in 3rd world countries. Ahhhhh pure fantasy.

Seriously though write your representatives advocating for a strong national rail system I don't believe I'm overstating when i say it is crucial for national security that we continue to fund and maintain the and even expand the system.

 

[Don Hawan]

And i don't put anything past BUSH he wants Amtrak gone real bad. :angry:

Keep in mind that he wants to do this purely out of spite and to antagonize the members of this forum. He told me this personally.

You know...you're exactly right. I just got off the phone with Bush's niece and she informs me that he is trying to create a domestic mess so the media can take their mind of the mockery he's made of the war in Iraq. In the end, it's all talk and no action. This joke of a budget is dead on arrival.

I know both of his daughters pretty well. I was out partying with them the other night and we got into a pretty deep discussion of the budget, specifically the Amtrak subsidy. They told me he'd propose around $20 billion for Amtrak if only they'd put the TVs back in the Viewliner bedrooms and put them in Superliner bedrooms, too.

 

[musher]

I know there are some conservatives that post here and I don't want to insult them but the guy they most likely voted for is a moron.

Too late.

I'm not going to debate the content of your post because it is off topic for this forum. I have, unfortunately, grown a little less enthusiastic about this forum after these recent threads, especially with the ad-hominem attacks that lack substance and proof of anything worthwhile.

That being said, it would be far more useful to simply gather the facts to support your argument, share them with as many people as you can (like with us here), and encourage them to contact their representatives, since it is the House of Representatives where the budget truly originates. What the President and his/her administration provide is merely a recommendation and a starting point.

The argument needs to be developed and supported based on the idea of a balanced transportation policy, since developing the argument based on the micro-economics of Amtrak will never win the day. You could even throw in a component of heritage and culture (e.g. the need to keep passenger rail travel alive as a connection to our past) just like we fund the arts.

 

[SavetheCZ]

I'm sorry if I offended. "Moron" was perhaps a little harsh for this forum but a whole lot more kind than how I usually refer to our CIC .

However, my opinion of why we need to improve our national passenger rail system for national security reasons is indeed vaild, or at least as valid as anyone elses opinion here. Let's also be clear there IS in fact less money to go around based on decisions unilaterally made by our CIC that affect EVERY other section of our society education, jobs, economic growth and transportation. Bottom line is because of other "obligations" that we are now responsible for, there is significantly less money to fund domestic policies such as a truly balanced, well funded transportation system. But then again we don't need that anyway, at least according to the President's budgetary "suggestions."

Addtionally, I stand by my belief that my initial quote from a senior administration advisor about how other forms of transportation do not require a federal subsidy is disingeniuous, bordering on a bold faced lie or at the very least extrememly misinformed. Which BTW is almost just as bad as a lie as it has the same consequense of perpetuating misinformation. But again I feel that is also par for the course from what I have seen, heard and read.

Moving on...

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Once this CIC makes up his mind on something, don't try to confuse him with the facts - he's not interested in the facts. I was a little surprised NOT to hear, in the state of the union message, that Social Security was harboring weapons of mass destruction. Probably the same ones Saddam was supposed to have, and that's why Social Security has to bite the dust.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Let me just tell all of the people that look at this topic. Airports get's 3 types of funding Federal State and local funding.For exsample in the State of Michigan Airports are getting for Airport programs $202 million,Air servce program $1 million,General aviation Airports $79.5m, Primary Airports $137m. And Amtrak can only get $7.2m to run 2 trains the Blue water and Pere Marquette.