High speed rails! Less military spending!

[Holmes]

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Hells yeah!

I wish Canada had something like this, so I can hang out in Toronto one day and sleep in my bed the same night. But I'll just have to wait for California's to be done to go to SoCal and be back home in the same day.

Oh, and in before high speed rails are called pork. Or whatever.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Wonderfull. I don't see why this couldn't have been put into the Infrastructure Appropriations bill later this year, which I would have supported, I mean its not like it would get built immediately anyway.

[Person Man]

Still. This is change we can believe in. I'd rather pay $50 to take 15 or 20 hours to cross the country than pay $400 to take 6 hours to cross the country.

[ChrisFromNJ]

There was only $10 billion in this bill dedicated to high speed rail. There should have been much more.

[Verily]

Wonderfull. I don't see why this couldn't have been put into the Infrastructure Appropriations bill later this year, which I would have supported, I mean its not like it would get built immediately anyway.

It's a big part of the job-creation aspect of the bill. Building new high-speed rail requires employing a lot of people. If only all of the money allocated to pointless tax credits had been put to high-speed rail instead.

[Holmes]

Or like, greener energy or broadband, or more for roads and bridges. I'm hoping Obama's budget really picks up what the stimulus didn't.

[Holmes]

Sounds like Obama's budget is getting better and better. But yeah, I doubt it'll be reduced by 25% like Frank wants, but that would save a lot of money...

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[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

There was only $10 billion in this bill dedicated to high speed rail. There should have been much more.

Not really.  Whlle high-speed rail is generally a good idea, I doubt that there are many projects that are "shovel-ready" and thus deserving of being in a stimulus bill.  The main problem will the cost of land acquisition.  High speed rail needs straighter routings and more gentle curves than the rights-of-way the railroads currently use.  This land acquisition will need to go through built-up areas and likely run into some of the same problems that led to the freeway revolts of the 60s and 70s.  Getting suitable rights-of-way will be the most expensive and controversial part of any push to high-speed rail.

[Ban my account ffs!]

There was only $10 billion in this bill dedicated to high speed rail. There should have been much more.

Not really.  Whlle high-speed rail is generally a good idea, I doubt that there are many projects that are "shovel-ready" and thus deserving of being in a stimulus bill.  The main problem will the cost of land acquisition.  High speed rail needs straighter routings and more gentle curves than the rights-of-way the railroads currently use.  This land acquisition will need to go through built-up areas and likely run into some of the same problems that led to the freeway revolts of the 60s and 70s.  Getting suitable rights-of-way will be the most expensive and controversial part of any push to high-speed rail.

This is true to some extent.. except the start of the high speed network will largely be in corridors that are already heavily used and thus are already pretty straight.  Also, with tilting technology, a train can operate at around 110mph without any significant straightening of the track.

The only tracks that need to be really straight are the ones that are suited for trains that go up to nearly 200mph.

Also, the train can slow down near corners.. but the tilting allows the train to operate at "high speed" rates on conventional tracks.

I've ridden the ICE Express train in Germany and the only portion where you go above 110mph is on the purpose built tracks between Frankfurt and Cologne.  On the rest of the trip speeds vary but top out above 100mph on tracks that have only minor modifications.

You also forget that various states have already begun building high speed rail networks like Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota.

Currently the line between Chicago and the Twin Cities is being upgraded for high speed train travel which cuts the trip from 8 hours to 5.

This money would only speed up the process and expand it.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Wonderfull. I don't see why this couldn't have been put into the Infrastructure Appropriations bill later this year, which I would have supported, I mean its not like it would get built immediately anyway.

It's a big part of the job-creation aspect of the bill. Building new high-speed rail requires employing a lot of people. If only all of the money allocated to pointless tax credits had been put to high-speed rail instead.

I agree those tax credits are absolutely worthless. I supported 250 billion in actuall Tax cuts as part of a 500 or 600 Billion dollar stimulus, followed by a 300 Billion dollar supplemental  infrastucture bill that contained long term projects and was payed for. The stimulus should only include those infrastructure that can be started in six months. This most likely would take a year or more. You think its important, I agree with you we need the broadband, the high-speed rail, the highways, and the bridges; but that is not stimulus and all this could have been put into an appropriations bill or even a supplemental spending bill which I would have supported. Why did these long-term projects need to be a part of the stimulus bill? They take too long to be an effective short-term stimulus and they could easily be passed in a more honest. Funny I thought honesty, openness, and transparency would be things Obama and the Dem's would of liked.

As for the military, why should it be cut? Haven't the dems been arguing for rebuilding the military because of the demands of Iraq? Giving to the military to repair or replace the military euiptment would be an excellent stimulus for the economy.

[Verily]

Wonderfull. I don't see why this couldn't have been put into the Infrastructure Appropriations bill later this year, which I would have supported, I mean its not like it would get built immediately anyway.

It's a big part of the job-creation aspect of the bill. Building new high-speed rail requires employing a lot of people. If only all of the money allocated to pointless tax credits had been put to high-speed rail instead.

I agree those tax credits are absolutely worthless. I supported 250 billion in actuall Tax cuts as part of a 500 or 600 Billion dollar stimulus, followed by a 300 Billion dollar supplemental  infrastucture bill that contained long term projects and was payed for.

Wrong, and even worse. All tax credits of any sort in the stimulus would have been worthless. They only encourage people to horde, which, while the correct decision on the individual level, tightens credit even further on the larger scale. Bad, bad, bad.

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Projects which cannot be started within six months still create jobs in the interim. Moreover, there is no such thing as an infrastructure project that does not require months of planning, so the whole argument is a red herring.

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I don't see how this is remotely relevant to the discussion, nor does it seem to me that things have been done in a dishonest, closed or opaque manner. You can't simply say, "Obama and the Democrats are evil and corrupt," and expect to be taken seriously by any but ideologues. You must provide evidence (www.recovery.gov, if you really care).

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There is enormous waste in the Defense Department, far exceeding what goes on in all other departments combined. This isn't in the money that actually gets sent to battles. It's in the money used for "research and development", which tends to consist of extremely expensive pet projects better suited to videogames than real life: super high-speed aircraft, helicopters which can dive underwater, etc.

But the Pentagon has a powerful lobby, and it's all too easy to argue, and you have come on the verge of doing, that any cuts to military funding are an attempt to undermine the United States' soldiers. Even when it's clear that they themselves would benefit from a reduction in the Defense budget if that meant more money for their health care or their children's education or domestic infrastructure or, yes, even for lower taxes.

[Wall St. Wiz]

The country is broke and he is dicking around with high speed rail?  This sounds like something I could support if the government had a balanced budget, but when we're trillions in debt some things need to go to the backburner.  I'd much rather not owe money to China then have high speed rail. 

[Holmes]

And I'd rather it create jobs in the long term, save passengers a lot of money for long trips, reduce air pollution, and it's honestly really fun. <_< Besides, it's not like a billion per year will make us OMG BANKRUPT, and I'm sure there are plenty of wasteful (military) spending that'll be cut anyway.

[AkSaber]

Hmmm. Cutting some military research projects might be a good idea.

Hell, the Army spent over $500 million on the Objective Individual Combat Weapon program. No design ever made it to full-scale production.

They then spent over $50 million on the XM8, before abandoning it, and the only rifles made were for testing and evaluation purposes only.

Now, they've spent something like over $70 million on the FN SCAR, and you know what? Nothing has been fielded by the military.

Meanwhile, the HK 416, which is far more reliable than the M16 or M4, was made as a result of a collaboration of a German arms company and the Army's Delta Force outfit. Not only that, but it cost the taxpayers zero dollars and has been in production for over 3 years already.

So yes, there is definite waste in the military. But if I might say this, I think Frank doesn't care about waste. He just wants less military spending so he can fund more of his idiot ideas and subsidize his wealthy friends.

[MK]

The country is broke and he is dicking around with high speed rail?  This sounds like something I could support if the government had a balanced budget, but when we're trillions in debt some things need to go to the backburner.  I'd much rather not owe money to China then have high speed rail. 

Not suprising the libreal Dem's are chasing windmills.

You haven't even fixed the roads and bridges or can even allow highspeed internet for at least 80% of the country.    You are now talking about freaken high speed rails.
The military should spend its money a Little more wisely I might add, but this looks to me like the typical libreal play book of - Don’t let a good crisis go unexploited.





It's the rail to nowhere....................................................

[bgwah]

It really saddens me when I think about all the money we blew on Iraq--we could have improved our infrastructure--and our country--so much with it.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Wonderfull. I don't see why this couldn't have been put into the Infrastructure Appropriations bill later this year, which I would have supported, I mean its not like it would get built immediately anyway.

Agreed.  That's the proper place for stuff like this.

[MK]

From what I hearing this is all a bunch of BS by Obama.   Mostly this money will go to the Harry Reid - Nancy Pelosi connection in the name of a rail system... so they say. This of coruse was hatched out back in Dec.

The poster who started this thread is not giving you the full story, but the Obama Kool-Aid drinkers will sip every bit of it up.

[dead0man]

The map.  Seems they should connect the Chicago hub to the NE hub between Cleveland and Pitsburgh.  And maybe KC to Tulsa.  For my own sake, it would be sweet if Omaha connected to KC or Chicago (or both!).

[Franzl]

From what I hearing this is all a bunch of BS by Obama.   Mostly this money will go to the Harry Reid - Nancy Pelosi connection in the name of a rail system... so they say. This of coruse was hatched out back in Dec.

The poster who started this thread is not giving you the full story, but the Obama Kool-Aid drinkers will sip every bit of it up.

yes yes, we know that you in the South don't care about stupid things like public transportation and such.

But you people are the first to complain about $4 gas and demand a gas tax holiday.

[MK]

From what I hearing this is all a bunch of BS by Obama.   Mostly this money will go to the Harry Reid - Nancy Pelosi connection in the name of a rail system... so they say. This of coruse was hatched out back in Dec.

The poster who started this thread is not giving you the full story, but the Obama Kool-Aid drinkers will sip every bit of it up.

yes yes, we know that you in the South don't care about stupid things like public transportation and such.

But you people are the first to complain about $4 gas and demand a gas tax holiday.

That's not the point franzl.

You are being lied to by Obama and the rest of his crew of libreal cohorts and the politico writer who wrote this article. 

Then again it's the cool-aid that tastes so sweet.

[Franzl]

From what I hearing this is all a bunch of BS by Obama.   Mostly this money will go to the Harry Reid - Nancy Pelosi connection in the name of a rail system... so they say. This of coruse was hatched out back in Dec.

The poster who started this thread is not giving you the full story, but the Obama Kool-Aid drinkers will sip every bit of it up.

yes yes, we know that you in the South don't care about stupid things like public transportation and such.

But you people are the first to complain about $4 gas and demand a gas tax holiday.

That's not the point franzl.

You are being lied to by Obama and the rest of his crew of libreal cohorts and the politico writer who wrote this article. 

Then again it's the cool-aid that tastes so sweet.

Not more than any other politician lies, but good for you Keller...you're so clever.

[Josh/Devilman88]

This is a good step to make a better America. I would ride a trail before I ride in a plane. I mean if we put some one in it we can make it where you get on a trail in New York at 8 am in the morning and get to CA before 1pm that day.

[riceowl]

the gulf coast one seems pretty worthless.

[Holmes]

Oooooh. Although California's won't look like that(at first), ooooooh. But one billion a year for 5 years won't get that much done at all, I think. But yeah, wouldn't the rails near the gulf be useless during hurricane season?